# The Brothers Karamazov, Peasant Women Who Have Faith

Братья Карамазовы · Fyodor Dostoevsky · Book II — An Unfortunate Gathering

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/karamazov/b2-c3. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/karamazov/b2-c3.json.


Внизу у деревянной галерейки, приделанной к наружной стене ограды, толпились на этот раз всё женщины, баб около двадцати.  
Below, by the little wooden gallery that had been built against the outer wall of the enclosure, there crowded this time none but women — about twenty peasant women in all.
> A past passive participle modifying the gallery: «приделанной» is the past passive participle of «приделать» (to attach, build on), agreeing with «галерейки» in feminine genitive. It compresses a whole который-clause — 'the gallery that had been attached' — into one adjective, the bookish move that gives Dostoevsky's description its density.
> Genitive plural after a number: «около двадцати» (about twenty) governs the genitive plural «баб». The whole loose phrase 'about twenty peasant women' stands in apposition, counting the «всё женщины» just named.
> «галерейка» — a little gallery: A diminutive of «галерея», a covered walkway or porch running along the wall. The -к- diminutive here is descriptive rather than affectionate, marking the modest, low structure — note «низенькую галерейку» again at s17.
> «баба» — peasant woman: «баба» is the plain, earthy word for a married peasant woman, distinct from the neutral «женщина» used in the same sentence. The narrator's pairing of the two — «всё женщины, баб около двадцины» — quietly marks these women as common folk, the very subject of the chapter's title «Верующие бабы».

Их уведомили, что старец наконец выйдет, и они собрались в ожидании.  
They had been told that the elder would at last come out, and they had gathered to wait for him.
> Subjectless 'they told them': An unspecified-subject plural: the verb «уведомили» (they informed) has no stated agent, a common Russian way to say 'they had been told' without naming who. «Их» (them) is the accusative object placed first as the topic.
> Reported clause with «что» and a perfective future: «что» introduces the reported content, and «выйдет» is the simple (perfective) future of «выйти» — its present-tense endings carry future meaning: 'would come out'. The aspect frames it as a single completed event, the awaited appearance.
> What a "starets" is: A «старец» (literally 'old man') is a spiritual elder: a monk revered for his holiness and his gifts of counsel and prophecy, to whom believers came for confession and guidance. We render it 'the elder.' The elder here is Father Zossima, and the whole chapter shows ordinary people seeking his blessing.

Вышли на галерейку и помещицы Хохлаковы, тоже ожидавшие старца, но в отведенном для благородных посетительниц помещении.  
The Khokhlakov ladies had also come out onto the gallery — they too were waiting for the elder, but in the quarters set aside for gentlewomen visitors.
> Past active participle 'who were also waiting': «ожидавшие» is the past active participle of imperfective «ожидать», agreeing with «помещицы» (nom. pl.) and meaning 'who were waiting'. The imperfective stem keeps the action ongoing — a parallel, drawn-out wait set against the peasant women's.
> A participle framing a prepositional phrase: Inside the prepositional phrase «в … помещении» (in the quarters) sits the past passive participle «отведенном» (set aside) governing «для благородных посетительниц» (for gentlewomen visitors). The whole nest — preposition, participle, its own object, then the head noun — is read as one unit, a hallmark of literary syntax.

Их было две: мать и дочь.  
There were two of them: mother and daughter.
> Genitive of the counted plus neuter «было»: A quantifying construction: «Их» (of them, genitive) with «было» in the fixed neuter singular and the numeral «две» — literally 'of them there were two'. The verb does not agree with a nominative subject but stays neuter, the standard pattern for existence-and-quantity statements.

Госпожа Хохлакова-мать, дама богатая и всегда со вкусом одетая, была еще довольно молодая и очень миловидная собою особа, немного бледная, с очень оживленными и почти совсем черными глазами.  
Madame Khokhlakov the mother, a wealthy lady always dressed with taste, was still rather young and a very comely person, somewhat pale, with very lively and almost wholly black eyes.
> An appositive packed with modifiers: A loose appositive describing «Госпожа Хохлакова», with the adjective «богатая» placed after its noun «дама» (a literary inversion) and the past passive participle «одетая» (dressed) carrying its own adverbial «со вкусом» (with taste). Russian freely stacks such weight after the noun.
> Instrumental of accompanying description after «с»: «с» (with) governs the instrumental, here the plural «глазами» with two agreeing adjectives. This 'with such-and-such eyes' pattern is the standard way Russian attaches a physical trait to a person.
> «особа» and «собою»: «особа» is a slightly formal, faintly ironic word for a 'person/personage' (almost always a woman). «миловидная собою» means 'comely in herself, of pleasing appearance', with «собою» the instrumental of «себя» used adverbially — a stock 19th-century turn of phrase.

Ей было не более тридцати трех лет, и она уже лет пять как была вдовой.  
She was no more than thirty-three, and she had already been a widow for some five years.
> Dative of age: Russian states age impersonally: the person stands in the dative («Ей», to her) with «было» neuter and the number phrase «тридцати трех лет» in the genitive — literally 'to her there were no more than thirty-three years'. No nominative subject appears.
> Predicate instrumental «вдовой»: After «была» the predicate noun «вдова» takes the instrumental «вдовой» — the role of widow framed as a state she had entered. The idiom «лет пять как» ('about five years since') sets the inverted numeral «лет пять' for approximation.

Четырнадцатилетняя дочь ее страдала параличом ног.  
Her fourteen-year-old daughter suffered from a paralysis of the legs.
> Instrumental with «страдать»: «страдать» (to suffer from an illness) governs the instrumental: «параличом» (by/from paralysis), itself completed by the genitive «ног» (of the legs). The imperfective past «страдала» states an ongoing chronic condition, not a single event.

Бедная девочка не могла ходить уже с полгода, и ее возили в длинном покойном кресле на колесах.  
The poor girl had been unable to walk for half a year already, and she was wheeled about in a long, comfortable chair on wheels.
> Imperfective multidirectional «ходить» for a general inability: «не могла ходить» (could not walk) uses imperfective «ходить» (multidirectional 'walk about') for the general inability. «с полгода» ('for about half a year') carries the durative sense the imperfective requires.
> Subjectless 'they wheeled her about': «возили» is the multidirectional motion verb «возить» (to convey, to and fro) in an agentless plural — 'she was wheeled about'. The choice of the multidirectional member, not «везти», marks habitual back-and-forth motion rather than one trip.
> «покойный» — comfortable, restful: Here «покойное кресло» means a 'comfortable, restful chair' (from «покой», rest/peace) — an older sense. The same adjective also means 'the late, deceased', so a 19th-century reader meets «покойный» in two very different keys; context (a chair on wheels) fixes the gentle one.

Это было прелестное личико, немного худенькое от болезни, но веселое.  
It was a charming little face, a little thin from illness, but cheerful.
> Diminutive adjective and causal «от»: «худенькое» is the diminutive-affectionate form of «худое» (thin), softened by the -еньк- suffix to convey tenderness toward the sick child. «от болезни» (from illness) is the genitive after «от» giving the cause.
> «личико» — little face: An affectionate diminutive of «лицо» (face). The chain of diminutives in this sentence — «личико», «худенькое» — colours the whole description with the narrator's tenderness for the crippled girl, an emotional cue carried by morphology rather than by any adjective like 'sweet'.

Что-то шаловливое светилось в ее темных больших глазах с длинными ресницами.  
Something mischievous shone in her large dark eyes with their long lashes.
> Indefinite «что-то» as subject: «что-то» ('something', specific but unnamed) is the neuter subject, with the agreeing neuter adjective «шаловливое» (mischievous) and the verb «светилось» — note the front-loaded 'something mischievous', the new information, while the location follows.
> Reflexive «-ся» as a middle verb: «светиться» (to shine, glimmer) is the -ся form of «светить»; the clitic makes it intransitive/middle — the light shines of itself, with no object. Imperfective past «светилось» renders the soft, continuous glimmer in her eyes.

Мать еще с весны собиралась ее везти за границу, но летом опоздали за устройством по имению.  
Ever since spring the mother had been meaning to take her abroad, but over the summer they had been delayed by the management of the estate.
> «собираться» + infinitive; unidirectional «везти»: «собиралась» (was intending to), the imperfective past of reflexive «собираться», plus the infinitive «везти» — the unidirectional motion verb for a single planned trip 'to take her abroad'. «за границу» uses the accusative after «за» for motion-toward.
> Contrastive «но» and instrumental of time «летом»: «летом» (in summer) is the bare instrumental used adverbially for season. «опоздали» (they were late / got delayed) is again an agentless plural, and «по имению» uses «по» + dative for 'over/about the estate'.

Они уже с неделю как жили в нашем городе, больше по делам, чем для богомолья, но уже раз, три дня тому назад, посещали старца.  
They had already been living in our town about a week, on business more than for pilgrimage, but they had visited the elder once already, three days before.
> Durative imperfective with «уже … как»: The imperfective past «жили» (were living) with «уже с неделю как» ('for about a week now') describes an ongoing state up to the present of the narrative — exactly the background-painting job the imperfective does.
> Imperfective «посещали» for a noted single visit: Though it names one visit, the verb is the imperfective «посещать» — Russian often uses the imperfective for an action viewed simply as a fact that occurred ('they had visited'), without stressing its completion, especially with «раз» (once).
> «богомолье» — pilgrimage / devotions: «богомолье» (literally 'God-praying', from «бог» + «молить») is a devout journey to a holy place to pray, a pilgrimage. The narrator contrasts it with «по делам» (on business): the Khokhlakovs came to town for practical affairs more than for piety, a sly social note.

Теперь они приехали вдруг опять, хотя и знали, что старец почти уже не может вовсе никого принимать, и, настоятельно умоляя, просили еще раз «счастья узреть великого исцелителя»  
Now they had suddenly come again, though they knew the elder could scarcely receive anyone at all any longer, and, pleading insistently, they begged once more for "the happiness of beholding the great healer."
> Piled-up negation: Russian negative concord stacks the intensifiers «вовсе» (at all) and «никого» (no one) with the single verbal «не»: literally 'cannot at all receive no one', all reinforcing one negation — 'could scarcely receive anyone at all'. «никого» is the genitive/accusative of «никто».
> Imperfective gerund of attendant manner: «умоляя» is the present (imperfective) gerund of «умолять» (to implore), describing the manner accompanying the main verb «просили»: 'imploring insistently, they begged'. The gerund shares the subject of the main clause and is a staple of literary narration.
> «узреть» — Slavonic 'to behold': The ladies' quoted plea is pitched in elevated register: «узреть» is a Church-Slavonic, archaic-solemn verb for 'to behold/lay eyes on' (vs. plain «увидеть»), and «исцелитель» ('healer') is the bookish word for one who cures. The narrator sets it in guillemets to flag the studied piety of their phrasing.

В ожидании выхода старца мамаша сидела на стуле, подле кресел дочери, а в двух шагах от нее стоял старик монах, не из здешнего монастыря, а захожий из одной дальней северной малоизвестной обители.  
While waiting for the elder to come out, the mama sat on a chair beside her daughter's wheeled chair, and two steps from her stood an old monk, not from the local monastery but a visitor from some distant, little-known hermitage in the north.
> Chained genitives in a temporal phrase: «В ожидании выхода старца» stacks genitives — 'in [the] awaiting of the coming-out of the elder' — a compact nominal way to say 'while waiting for the elder to come out'. Russian readily replaces a clause with a noun-of-action plus its genitive complements.
> Contrastive «а» and subject-final order: «а» is the soft contrastive 'and/while', shifting the topic from the mother to the monk. The subject «старик монах» comes last, after the locative phrase — Russian's topic-comment order placing the newly introduced figure in end-focus.
> «захожий» — a passing visitor: «захожий» is a colloquial adjective from «заходить» (to drop in), meaning one who has come from elsewhere, a passing stranger — here a monk visiting from another monastery. It pairs with «обитель» below to mark him as an outsider to «здешний монастырь» (the local one).

Он тоже желал благословиться у старца.  
He too wished to receive the elder's blessing.
> Reflexive «благословиться» and «у» + genitive: «благословиться» is the -ся form: 'to get oneself blessed, receive a blessing' (the middle/passive sense), distinct from active «благословить» (to bless someone). The agent of the blessing is marked by «у старца» — «у» + genitive for 'from/at the elder'.

Но показавшийся на галерее старец прошел сначала прямо к народу.  
But the elder, when he appeared on the gallery, went first straight to the common people.
> Past active participle in front position: «показавшийся» is the past active participle of reflexive «показаться» (to appear) — and is itself reflexive, keeping the -ся. Placed before its noun, 'the having-appeared elder', it folds 'the elder, when he appeared,' into a single attributive phrase.
> Perfective prefixed motion «прошел»: «прошел», perfective of «пройти» (про- + идти), names a single completed movement — 'went/passed straight to'. The directional prefix про- both fixes the path and makes the verb perfective, advancing the narrative event.

Толпа затеснилась к крылечку о трех ступеньках, соединявшему низенькую галерейку с полем.  
The crowd pressed toward the little porch of three steps that joined the low gallery to the open field.
> Inceptive «за-» plus reflexive: «затеснилась» combines the inceptive prefix «за-» ('began to') with reflexive «-ся»: the crowd 'set to pressing/began to crush' toward the porch. The perfective marks the onset of the surge as a single event.
> Past active participle in the dative: «соединявшему» is a past active participle of «соединять» (to join) agreeing with «крылечку» in the dative (governed by «к»). It heads a relative-type phrase — 'the porch joining the gallery with the field' — with the accompaniment marked by «с полем» (instrumental after «с»).
> «крылечко» and the archaic «о трех ступеньках»: «крылечко» is the diminutive of «крыльцо» (porch, front steps). «о трех ступеньках» uses «о» + prepositional in an old idiom 'having/of three steps' (compare «стол о четырёх ножках», a table 'with four legs') — a faintly archaic, folkloric way to count a thing's parts.

Старец стал на верхней ступеньке, надел эпитрахиль и начал благословлять теснившихся к нему женщин.  
The elder stood on the topmost step, put on his stole, and began to bless the women crowding toward him.
> A chain of perfectives moving the action: Three perfective verbs in sequence — «стал» (took his stand), «надел» (put on), «начал» (began) — each a completed step pushing the narrative forward, against the imperfective backdrop of the surrounding description. «начал» then takes the imperfective infinitive «благословлять» (to be blessing), since one begins an ongoing process.
> Reflexive past participle as object modifier: «теснившихся» is the past active participle of reflexive «тесниться» (to crowd, press), in the accusative-genitive plural agreeing with animate «женщин» — 'the women [who were] crowding toward him'. Animate plural takes the genitive-like ending for its accusative.
> The priest's stole: The «эпитрахиль» (epitrachelion) is a long band of cloth worn around the neck by an Orthodox priest, hanging down the front. It is essential for many rites: a priest cannot bless, hear confession, or administer the sacraments without it. We render it 'stole.' Here Zossima lays it on the sick woman's head while reading a prayer over her.

Притянули к нему одну кликушу за обе руки.  
They dragged one shrieking woman, a klikusha, toward him by both arms.
> Agentless perfective and «за» for the grasped part: «Притянули» (they dragged near), perfective of «притянуть», is again subjectless plural. «за обе руки» uses «за» + accusative in the idiom for the body-part one is seized by — 'by both arms'. Putting the verb first throws the new event into the foreground.

Та, едва лишь завидела старца, вдруг начала, как-то нелепо взвизгивая, икать и вся затряслась, как в родимце.  
The moment she caught sight of the elder, she suddenly began, with a kind of absurd squealing, to hiccup convulsively, and her whole body shook as if in a fit.
> «едва лишь» + perfective for 'the moment that': «едва лишь» ('hardly … when, the very moment') pairs with the perfective «завидела» (caught sight of, inceptive за- + видеть) to mark the instant trigger. Russian leans on perfective verbs in these 'as soon as' clauses because the action is a single point.
> Inceptive «за-» + «-ся» for a sudden onset: «затряслась» = за- (begin) + трясти + -ся: 'began to shake / fell to trembling', the reflexive making it intransitive. «вся» ('all of her') intensifies — her whole body. The perfective captures the abrupt seizure.
> «родимец» — a folk word for a fit: «родимец» is an old peasant term for a convulsive seizure or fit (sometimes epilepsy or infantile convulsions). The simile «как в родимце» ('as if in a fit') is folk diagnosis, fitting the rural, pre-medical world the scene depicts.

Наложив ей на голову эпитрахиль, старец прочел над нею краткую молитву, и она тотчас затихла и успокоилась.  
Laying the stole on her head, the elder read a short prayer over her, and she at once fell silent and grew calm.
> Perfective past gerund 'having laid': «Наложив» is the perfective past gerund of «наложить» (to lay on): 'having laid the stole on her head', a completed action prior to the main verbs. «ей на голову» — dative «ей» of the person affected plus «на голову» (acc. after «на», motion-onto).
> Two perfectives of the calming: «затихла» (fell silent) and «успокоилась» (grew calm, reflexive) are both perfective, marking the swift, complete change of state — the cure as a finished event. «тотчас» ('at once') underlines the instantaneity that the perfective already implies.

Не знаю, как теперь, но в детстве моем мне часто случалось в деревнях и по монастырям видеть и слышать этих кликуш.  
I do not know how it is now, but in my childhood I often had occasion, in villages and at monasteries, to see and hear these shrieking women.
> Dative-subject «случалось» + infinitive: An impersonal construction: «мне» (dative) is the experiencer, «случалось» the neuter impersonal verb 'it used to happen [to me]', and the imperfective infinitives «видеть и слышать» follow. There is no nominative subject — the very pattern that frames so much inner experience in the novel.
> Distributive «по» + dative: «по монастырям» (dative plural after «по») has the distributive sense 'around / at various monasteries', matching «в деревнях» (in villages). «по» with the dative often spreads an action over many places.

Их приводили к обедне, они визжали или лаяли по-собачьи на всю церковь, но, когда выносили дары и их подводили к дарам, тотчас «беснование» прекращалось и больные на несколько времени всегда успокоивались.  
They would be brought to the liturgy, where they squealed or barked like dogs through the whole church, but when the Holy Gifts were carried out and they were led up to them, the "possession" would cease at once, and the sick women always grew calm for a while.
> Stacked imperfectives for habitual scenes: The whole sentence runs on imperfective pasts — «приводили», «визжали», «лаяли», «выносили», «подводили» — because it describes a repeated, customary scene, not one occasion. Imperfective is Russian's tense of habit.
> Reflexive intransitive «прекращалось»: «прекращаться» (to cease), the -ся form of «прекращать», is intransitive — the possession 'ceased of itself'. Its imperfective here keeps the recurring frame ('would cease'), and the narrator's quotation marks around «беснование» hold the popular term at arm's length.
> «обедня» — the Liturgy: «обедня» is the everyday Russian word for the Divine Liturgy (the central Orthodox service, equivalent to the Mass), so called because it falls around midday/dinner («обед»). «приводили к обедне» — 'they were brought to the Liturgy'.

Меня, ребенка, очень это поражало и удивляло.  
As a child this struck and amazed me greatly.
> Fronted object and an appositive: The accusative object «Меня» (me) leads, set off by the appositive «ребенка» ('[as] a child', also accusative), while the neuter subject «это» (this) sits after — Russian's free order putting the experiencer first as topic. «поражало и удивляло» are imperfective, the lasting childhood impression.

Но тогда же я услышал от иных помещиков и особенно от городских учителей моих, на мои расспросы, что это всё притворство, чтобы не работать, и что это всегда можно искоренить надлежащею строгостью, причем приводились для подтверждения разные анекдоты.  
But at the time, in answer to my questions, I heard from certain landowners and especially from my town tutors that it was all pretense, a way of getting out of work, and that it could always be rooted out by the proper severity — and various anecdotes were cited to prove it.
> «что» (fact) vs «чтобы» (purpose): Two conjunctions sit side by side: «что» reports the alleged fact ('that it was all pretense'), while «чтобы не работать» states purpose ('in order not to work'). «чтобы» + infinitive (same-subject purpose) is the willed/aimed-at counterpart to plain reporting «что».
> Impersonal «можно» and instrumental of means: «можно» is an impersonal predicative ('it is possible') taking the infinitive «искоренить» (to root out), with no nominative subject. The means stands in the instrumental, «строгостью» (by severity); note the archaic instrumental ending «-ою» in «надлежащею строгостью», common in 19th-century prose.
> Imperfective reflexive passive: «приводились» is the imperfective reflexive passive of «приводить» (to cite): 'various anecdotes were [being] cited', the -ся carrying the passive sense without a named agent. This bookish -ся passive is the imperfective's way of forming the passive voice.

Но впоследствии я с удивлением узнал от специалистов-медиков, что тут никакого нет притворства, что это страшная женская болезнь, и кажется, по преимуществу у нас на Руси, свидетельствующая о тяжелой судьбе нашей сельской женщины, болезнь, происходящая от изнурительных работ слишком вскоре после тяжелых, неправильных, безо всякой медицинской помощи родов; кроме того, от безвыходного горя, от побоев и проч., чего иные женские натуры выносить по общему примеру все-таки не могут.  
Later, however, I learned to my astonishment from medical specialists that there is no pretense in it at all — that it is a terrible women's malady, and one apparently most prevalent here in Russia, bearing witness to the hard lot of our peasant woman; an illness arising from exhausting labor undertaken too soon after a difficult, mishandled childbirth without any medical aid; and besides that, from inescapable grief, from beatings, and so on — things that, by common example, certain women's natures simply cannot bear.
> Genitive of negation with «нет»: «нет притворства» — under «нет» the thing-that-is-absent goes in the genitive («притворства», not nominative «притворство»), and «никакого» ('no [kind of]') agrees in the genitive, reinforcing the negation. 'There is no pretense in it at all.'
> Present active participle heading a long modifier: «происходящая» is the present active participle of «происходить» (to arise/originate), agreeing with «болезнь», and it carries a long causal train of «от» + genitive phrases — 'an illness arising from exhausting labor … from grief … from beatings'. Such participle-led chains let one sentence hold a whole etiology.
> «роды» and the form «безо»: «роды» (plurale tantum) means 'childbirth, labor'; «после … родов» is its genitive plural. The preposition «без» takes the buffer vowel — «безо всякой» — before the cluster «вс-», a regular phonetic variant. The phrase paints birth given 'without any medical aid'.

Странное же и мгновенное исцеление беснующейся и бьющейся женщины, только лишь, бывало, ее подведут к дарам, которое объясняли мне притворством и сверх того фокусом, устраиваемым чуть ли не самими «клерикалами», происходило, вероятно, тоже самым натуральным образом, и подводившие ее к дарам бабы, а главное, и сама больная, вполне веровали, как установившейся истине, что нечистый дух, овладевший больною, никогда не может вынести, если ее, больную, подведя к дарам, наклонят пред ними.  
And the strange, instantaneous healing of the possessed and convulsing woman the very moment she was led up to the Holy Gifts — which was explained to me as pretense, and moreover as a trick contrived by the "clericals" themselves — came about, in all likelihood, also in the most natural way: both the women who led her to the Gifts and, above all, the sick woman herself believed utterly, as an established truth, that the unclean spirit that had taken hold of her could never endure it if she, the sick woman, were led up to the Gifts and bowed down before them.
> Relative «которое» plus predicate instrumental: «которое» (which, neuter, agreeing with the distant «исцеление») opens a relative clause; the verb «объясняли» (they explained) is agentless, and the gloss given stands in the instrumental — «притворством», «фокусом» — the case for what something is 'explained as / construed to be'.
> Past active participle + instrumental object: «овладевший» is the past active participle of «овладеть» (to take possession of), which governs the instrumental — «больною» ('the sick woman', archaic instr. «-ою»). So 'the unclean spirit that had taken hold of the sick woman'. «никогда … не может» shows negative concord.
> Conditional «если» with a perfective future: Inside the reported belief, «если» heads a real condition and «наклонят» (they will bend [her] down) is a perfective future — 'if she is bowed before them'. «пред» is the elevated/archaic variant of «перед» (before), governing the instrumental «ними».

А потому и всегда происходило (и должно было происходить) в нервной и, конечно, тоже психически больной женщине непременное как бы сотрясение всего организма ее в момент преклонения пред дарами, сотрясение, вызванное ожиданием непременного чуда исцеления и самою полною верой в то, что оно совершится.  
And so there always occurred (and was bound to occur) in a nervous and, of course, also psychically ill woman an inevitable, as it were, convulsion of her whole organism at the moment of prostration before the Gifts — a convulsion provoked by the expectation of the certain miracle of healing and by the fullest faith that it would come to pass.
> Impersonal necessity «должно было»: «должно было происходить» is impersonal — neuter «должно» + «было» + imperfective infinitive — 'it was bound to occur', with no nominative subject. Russian frames obligation and inevitability this subjectless way.
> Short-form? No — long past passive participle: «вызванное» is the past passive participle of «вызвать» (to provoke), agreeing with neuter «сотрясение», and its agent/cause is in the instrumental — «ожиданием» (by expectation) and «верой» (by faith). The instrumental marks the means behind a passive participle.
> The hedging particle «как бы»: «как бы» ('as it were, a kind of') hedges the noun «сотрясение», softening the narrator's claim — a tic of Dostoevsky's tentative, probing voice. It contains the irrealis «бы», here fossilized into a qualifier rather than a true conditional.

И оно совершалось хотя бы только на одну минуту.  
And come to pass it did, if only for a single minute.
> Reflexive «совершалось» and concessive «хотя бы»: «совершаться» (to come to pass), -ся form, is intransitive; the imperfective «совершалось» fits the recurring claim. «хотя бы» ('even if only') is a concessive built on «бы» — 'if only for a single minute'.

Точно так же оно и теперь совершилось, едва лишь старец накрыл больную эпитрахилью.  
And in just the same way it came to pass now, the moment the elder covered the sick woman with his stole.
> Perfective for the single present instance: Now the verb switches to perfective «совершилось» (came to pass) — the general imperfective pattern of s28-29 narrows to this one completed occurrence at the gallery. The aspect shift itself does the work of moving from rule to event.
> Instrumental of the covering thing: «накрыл … эпитрахилью» — «накрыть» (to cover) takes the accusative of what is covered («больную») and the instrumental of what it is covered with («эпитрахилью»). «едва лишь» + perfective again marks the triggering instant.

Многие из теснившихся к нему женщин заливались слезами умиления и восторга, вызванного эффектом минуты; другие рвались облобызать хоть край одежды его, иные что-то причитали.  
Many of the women crowding toward him dissolved into tears of tenderness and rapture, called forth by the effect of the moment; others strained to kiss even the hem of his garment; still others kept up some kind of wailing lament.
> «из» + genitive partitive with a participle: «Многие из … женщин» ('many of the women') uses «из» + genitive for the partitive, and the genitive plural is itself qualified by the past active participle «теснившихся» (who were crowding). 'Many of the women crowding toward him.'
> Correlative «другие … иные»: The narrator distributes the crowd with paired indefinites: «Многие …», «другие …» (others), «иные …» (still others) — a three-way correlative spread. «рвались» is reflexive 'strained/tore themselves [toward]'; «что-то причитали», 'wailed something', uses indefinite «что-то».
> «облобызать» — to kiss (solemn): «облобызать» is an elevated, Church-flavored verb for 'to kiss' (vs. plain «поцеловать»), fitting the gesture of veneration — kissing «край одежды его» (the hem of his garment), an act with Gospel resonance. «одежды его» places the possessive «его» after the noun, a bookish, almost liturgical word order.

Он благословлял всех, а с иными разговаривал.  
He blessed them all, and with some of them he spoke.
> Imperfectives of repeated action, joined by «а»: Both verbs are imperfective — «благословлял» (kept blessing), «разговаривал» (talked with) — for the repeated, distributed actions over the crowd. «а» is the soft contrastive linking 'he blessed them all, and (by contrast) with some he talked'.

Кликушу он уже знал, ее привели не издалека, из деревни всего верст за шесть от монастыря, да и прежде водили к нему.  
The shrieking woman he already knew; she had been brought from no great distance, from a village only some six versts from the monastery, and she had been led to him before, too.
> Fronted object for topic: The accusative object «Кликушу» (the shrieking woman) leads the sentence as its topic, before the subject «он» — 'the klikusha, he already knew'. Free word order lets Russian foreground the known referent.
> Inverted numeral and «за … от» for distance: «верст за шесть» inverts the numeral after the noun to mean 'about six versts', the approximative order. «за шесть … от монастыря» frames distance — 'some six versts away from the monastery'. «верст» is the genitive plural after the number.

— А вот далекая! — указал он на одну еще вовсе не старую женщину, но очень худую и испитую, не то что загоревшую, а как бы всю почерневшую лицом.  
"And here is one from far off!" he said, indicating a woman who was not yet old at all, but very thin and wasted, not so much sunburned as blackened all over in the face.
> «указать на» + accusative: «указать на» (to point at/indicate) governs the accusative — «на одну … женщину». The animate feminine «женщину» shows its own accusative ending, and the stacked descriptors that follow («очень худую и испитую») all agree in that accusative.
> Correlative «не то что … а» with participles: The construction «не то что X, а Y» ('not so much X as Y') contrasts two past active participles in the accusative: «загоревшую» (sunburned) and «почерневшую» (turned black). «лицом» is an instrumental of respect — 'blackened in [respect of the] face'.
> «испитой» — worn, haggard: «испитой» means gaunt and wasted, drained of vitality (from «испить», to drink up / drain). It deepens «очень худую» (very thin): not merely thin but used-up, a face hollowed by suffering — the physical mark of the grief the elder is about to address.

Она стояла на коленях и неподвижным взглядом смотрела на старца.  
She was kneeling and gazing with a motionless stare at the elder.
> Imperfectives of a held posture: «стояла» (was kneeling) and «смотрела» (was gazing) are imperfective pasts painting a sustained, motionless pose — the durative background against which the dialogue will move. «на коленях» (prepositional after «на») is the set phrase for 'on one's knees'.
> Instrumental of manner: «смотрела … неподвижным взглядом» uses the instrumental «взглядом» (with a stare), modified by «неподвижным» (motionless) — the instrumental of manner answering 'how she looked'.

Во взгляде ее было что-то как бы исступленное.  
There was something almost frenzied in her gaze.
> Existential 'there was something' with «было»: Neuter «было» plus indefinite «что-то» and the agreeing neuter adjective «исступленное» — 'in her gaze there was something frenzied'. The locative «Во взгляде» leads as topic; «как бы» again hedges the description.
> «исступление» — frenzy, transport: «исступленный» means seized by «исступление» — a state of frenzy, ecstasy, or being beside oneself. It is a charged Dostoevskian word for the extreme, near-religious intensity that overtakes his suffering characters; here it foretells the depth of the woman's grief.

— Издалека, батюшка, издалека, отселева триста верст. Издалека, отец, издалека, — проговорила женщина нараспев, как-то покачивая плавно из стороны в сторону головой и подпирая щеку ладонью.  
"From far off, dear father, from far off, three hundred versts from where I live. From far off, father, from far off," the woman said in a singsong voice, swaying her head smoothly from side to side and propping her cheek on her palm.
> Two imperfective gerunds of attendant action: «покачивая» (swaying) and «подпирая» (propping) are present (imperfective) gerunds describing what the woman does while she speaks — simultaneous attendant circumstances sharing the subject of «проговорила». «головой» and «ладонью» are instrumentals: she sways her head, props with her palm.
> Perfective «про-» framing the whole utterance: «проговорила» (про- + говорить) is perfective — it packages the speaking as one completed utterance, the standard verb to close a line of quoted speech. «нараспев» ('in a singsong, drawing-out') is an adverb fused from «на» + «распев».
> «батюшка» and the dialect «отселева»: «Батюшка» is an affectionate diminutive of «батя/отец» (father), the everyday respectful way peasants address a priest or elder; we render it 'dear father'. The woman also says «отселева» — a rustic, dialectal form of «отсюда» (from here), one of several folk-speech markers that color her keening. A verst («верст») is about 1.07 km, so «триста верст» is roughly 200 miles.

Говорила она как бы причитывая.  
She spoke as though keening.
> Gerund with hedging «как бы»: «причитывая» is the imperfective gerund of «причитывать» (to keen, lament in singsong), and «как бы» softens it: 'as though keening'. The gerund describes the manner of «Говорила» — how she spoke.
> «причитать/причитывать» — ritual keening: «причитать» (and the iterative «причитывать») is to wail in the formulaic, half-sung lament of Russian folk mourning — the «причитания» (laments) the narrator dwells on below. It is not random crying but a culturally patterned grief, which is why the narrator builds a whole meditation around it.

Есть в народе горе молчаливое и многотерпеливое; оно уходит в себя и молчит.  
There is among the common people a grief that is silent and long-suffering; it withdraws into itself and is mute.
> Existential «есть» and post-posed adjectives: «Есть … горе» ('there is a grief') is the bare existential «есть», and the adjectives «молчаливое и многотерпеливое» follow their noun for rhetorical, almost biblical weight. «в народе» — 'among the common people'.
> Reflexive «себя» and the present tense of generalization: «уходит в себя» ('withdraws into itself') uses the reflexive pronoun «себя», pointing back to the subject «оно» (the grief). The present-tense imperfectives «уходит … молчит» state a timeless general truth, the gnomic present of the narrator's aphorism.

Но есть горе и надорванное: оно пробьется раз слезами и с той минуты уходит в причитывания.  
But there is also a grief that has burst its bounds: it breaks out once in tears, and from that moment on it passes into keening.
> Perfective future as gnomic 'will': «пробьется» is a perfective future (про- + бить + -ся, 'will break through') used in a general maxim — the perfective present-form here states what such grief characteristically does, a vivid timeless future. «слезами» is the instrumental of means ('in tears').
> «надорванное» — grief that has torn itself: «надорванный» is the past passive participle of «надорвать» (to strain, tear partway) — grief that has been wrenched and ruptured. It anticipates «надрывают» (s43): «надрыв», the self-lacerating overstrain of feeling, is one of the novel's master themes (a later chapter is titled «Надрыв»).

Это особенно у женщин.  
This is especially so with women.
> Zero-copula present with «у» + genitive: A verbless present sentence — Russian needs no 'is' — with «у женщин» («у» + genitive) meaning 'among/with women'. Literally 'This [is] especially among women'.

Но не легче оно молчаливого горя.  
Yet it is no lighter than silent grief.
> Comparative governing the genitive: The comparative «легче» (lighter, easier — a regular, consonant-mutating comparative of «лёгкий», к→ч, not suppletive) takes the genitive of comparison: «молчаливого горя» ('than silent grief'). Russian can express 'than' simply by putting the compared thing in the genitive, no «чем» needed.

Причитания утоляют тут лишь тем, что еще более растравляют и надрывают сердце.  
The keening soothes here only in that it lacerates and tears at the heart still more.
> Instrumental «тем, что» — 'by the fact that': «тем, что» is the instrumental of «то» plus a «что»-clause: 'by [the fact] that …' — the means by which the keening soothes. The paradox is sharp: it consoles only by lacerating («растравляют») and tearing at («надрывают») the heart still more.

Такое горе и утешения не желает, чувством своей неутолимости питается.  
Such grief desires no consolation; it feeds upon the very sense of its own inconsolability.
> Genitive object under negation: «желать» typically takes the genitive of abstract objects, and under negation that is reinforced: «не желает утешения» — 'desires no consolation', the genitive «утешения» rather than accusative.
> «питаться» + instrumental; reflexive «свой»: «питаться» (to feed on), a -ся verb, governs the instrumental of what it feeds on — «чувством» (the feeling). «своей» is the reflexive possessive: 'its own' inconsolability, referring back to the grief that is the subject. Verb-final order gives the aphorism its weight.

Причитания лишь потребность раздражать беспрерывно рану.  
The keening is merely the need to keep irritating the wound without cease.
> Zero-copula equation with an infinitive: No verb: «Причитания [есть] потребность раздражать … рану» — 'the keening [is] the need to keep irritating the wound', the present-tense identification Russian makes without a copula. The infinitive «раздражать» (imperfective) names the continual, unfinished irritating.

— По мещанству, надоть быть? — продолжал, любопытно в нее вглядываясь, старец.  
"From the town class, are you?" the elder went on, peering at her with curiosity.
> Imperfective gerund framing the elder's look: «вглядываясь» is the present gerund of «вглядываться» (to peer intently), a -ся verb, with the adverb «любопытно» (curiously): 'peering at her with curiosity' while he speaks. The gerund again attaches the manner to the speech verb «продолжал».
> «мещанство» and the rustic «надоть быть»: «мещанство» is the legal estate of townspeople (petty bourgeoisie / townsfolk) below the merchants — the elder guesses her social class. «надоть быть» is folk-dialect for «надо быть» ('must be, I suppose'), with the rustic «-ть» infinitive; it marks his gentle, plain register toward a peasant.

— Городские мы, отец, городские, по крестьянству мы, а городские, в городу проживаем. Тебя повидать, отец, прибыла. Слышали о тебе, батюшка, слышали. Сыночка младенчика схоронила, пошла молить бога. В трех монастырях побывала, да указали мне: «Зайди, Настасьюшка, и сюда, к вам то есть, голубчик, к вам». Пришла, вчера у стояния была, а сегодня и к вам.  
"Townsfolk we are, father, townsfolk; peasants by birth, but townsfolk now, we live in the town. I came to see you, father. We've heard of you, dear father, heard of you. I buried my little boy, my baby, and I set out to pray to God. I've been to three monasteries, and they told me, 'Go to that one too, Nastasyushka — to your folk, that is, dear one, to your folk.' So I came; yesterday I was at the vigil, and today I've come to you."
> Predicate-first order and contrastive «а»: She puts the predicate «Городские» (townsfolk) before the dropped-then-restated «мы», a colloquial, emphatic order. «а» turns on its mild contrast — 'peasants by origin, but townsfolk now'. «в городу» uses the old locative «-у» of «город» (modern «в городе»), a folk form.
> Infinitive of purpose and dropped «я»: «Тебя повидать … прибыла» — the perfective infinitive «повидать» (to see, to call on) states purpose, and the subject «я» is dropped, recoverable from the feminine past «прибыла». «Тебя» (you, accusative) is fronted as the goal of her journey. Note the familiar «тебя/тебе»: she addresses the holy elder with intimate «ты», as peasants did.
> Piled diminutives and «схоронить»: «Сыночка» (dear little son) and «младенчика» (little babe) heap diminutives in apposition, the morphology of grief and tenderness. «схоронить» is the folk/elevated verb for 'to bury' (vs. «похоронить»). «Настасьюшка» and «голубчик» (little dove, dear one) continue the affectionate register.

— О чем плачешь-то?  
"What are you weeping about, then?"
> The emphatic clitic «-то»: «-то» appended to the verb «плачешь» is the topic-emphasizing clitic — not the indefinite suffix but a colloquial highlighter, drawing gentle focus to the act of weeping: 'what are you weeping about, then?' «О чем» is «о» + prepositional, the case for the topic of weeping.

— Сыночка жаль, батюшка, трехлеточек был, без трех только месяцев и три бы годика ему. По сыночку мучусь, отец, по сыночку. Последний сыночек оставался, четверо было у нас с Никитушкой, да не стоят у нас детушки, не стоят, желанный, не стоят. Трех первых схоронила я, не жалела я их очень-то, а этого последнего схоронила и забыть его не могу. Вот точно он тут предо мной стоит, не отходит. Душу мне иссушил. Посмотрю на его бельишечко, на рубашоночку аль на сапожки и взвою. Разложу, что после него осталось, всякую вещь его, смотрю и вою. Говорю Никитушке, мужу-то моему: отпусти ты меня, хозяин, на богомолье сходить. Извозчик он, не бедные мы, отец, не бедные, сами от себя извоз ведем, всё свое содержим, и лошадок и экипаж. Да на что теперь нам добро? Зашибаться он стал без меня, Никитушка-то мой, это наверно что так, да и прежде того: чуть я отвернусь, а уж он и ослабеет. А теперь и о нем не думаю. Вот уж третий месяц из дому. Забыла я, обо всем забыла и помнить не хочу; а и что я с ним теперь буду? Кончила я с ним, кончила, со всеми покончила. И не глядела бы я теперь на свой дом и на свое добро, и не видала б я ничего вовсе!  
"I grieve for my little boy, dear father; he was three years old, just three months short of three. I'm in torment over my little boy, father, over my little boy. He was the last little boy left to me; we had four, Nikitushka and I, but the children don't last for us, they don't last, dear one, they don't last. The first three I buried, and I didn't grieve over them so very much, but this last one I buried and I cannot forget him. It's as though he's standing right here before me, never leaving. He has dried up my soul. I look at his little clothes, at his little shirt or his little boots, and I howl. I lay out everything that's left of him, every little thing of his, and I look and I wail. I say to Nikitushka, my husband: 'Let me go, master, let me go on a pilgrimage.' He's a driver; we're not poor, father, not poor, we run our own carting business, all of it our own, the horses and the carriage too. But what use is our property to us now? He's taken to drinking without me, my Nikitushka — that's surely how it is, and even before this: the moment I turn away, he goes slack. But now I don't even think about him. It's the third month now I've been away from home. I've forgotten, forgotten everything and I don't want to remember; and what would I do with him now anyway? I'm done with him, done, done with everything. And I wouldn't so much as look now at my house and my belongings — I'd just as soon never see a thing again!"
> Impersonal «жаль» + accusative/genitive object: «жаль» is an impersonal predicative of pity, with no nominative subject — here 'I pity / I grieve for'. «Сыночка» (the dear son) is its object. The whole emotion is framed subjectlessly, the typical Russian way to voice an overwhelming feeling.
> Conditional «бы» and dative of age: «три бы годика ему [было]» — the particle «бы» makes it counterfactual: 'he would have been three', for a child who died before reaching it. «ему» is the dative-of-age experiencer; the elided «было» is understood. «годика» is the diminutive of «год».
> Folk «да», negation, and the verb «стоять» = 'last': «да» here is the folksy coordinating 'and/but'. «не стоят … детушки» uses «стоять» in its colloquial sense 'to survive, hold on, last' — the children 'don't last for us'. The repetition («не стоят, желанный, не стоят») is the rhythm of her keening.
> Diminutive ladders of mourning: Her speech overflows with diminutives: «детушки» (the dear little children), «бельишечко» (the poor little linen/clothes, with a faintly pitying suffix), «рубашоночка» (little shirt), «сапожки» (little boots). These are not about smallness but about love and loss — morphology doing the emotional work English must render with adjectives.
> «извозчик» / «извоз» — the carting trade: «извозчик» is a driver-for-hire (cabman, carter) and «извоз» the carting business itself. The wife stresses they 'run their own carting' («сами от себя извоз ведем») and keep their own horses and carriage — they are not poor, a detail that sharpens the futility she feels: their property means nothing now.

— Вот что, мать, — проговорил старец, — однажды древний великий святой увидел во храме такую же, как ты, плачущую мать и тоже по младенце своем, по единственном, которого тоже призвал господь.  
"Listen, mother," said the elder, "once long ago a great saint of old saw in the temple a mother weeping just as you are, and weeping too for her infant, her only one, whom the Lord had likewise called to Himself.
> «мать» as a form of address: The elder addresses her with the bare noun «мать» ('mother'), the warm, common way an elder speaks to a peasant woman — affectionate without diminutive. «Вот что» is the set discourse-opener 'Listen / here's the thing'.
> Archaic «по» + prepositional of mourning, with «свой»: «плакать по» governs the prepositional in this archaic/elevated mourning sense — «по младенце своем» ('for her infant'), with the old prepositional ending «-е» of «младенец». «своем» is the reflexive possessive 'her own'. The whole turn lifts the saint's tale into a solemn register.
> «призвать» — God 'called' the child: «призвал господь» ('the Lord called [to Himself]') is the pious idiom for a death — the child was summoned by God, not merely lost. The elder reframes the bereavement in the consoling language of faith, the heart of his whole reply.

«Или не знаешь ты, — сказал ей святой, — сколь сии младенцы пред престолом божиим дерзновенны? Даже и нет никого дерзновеннее их в царствии небесном: ты, господи, даровал нам жизнь, говорят они богу, и только лишь мы узрели ее, как ты ее у нас и взял назад. И столь дерзновенно просят и спрашивают, что господь дает им немедленно ангельский чин. А посему, — молвил святой, — и ты радуйся, жено, а не плачь, и твой младенец теперь у господа в сонме ангелов его пребывает».  
'Do you not know,' the saint said to her, 'how bold these infants are before the throne of God? There is none in the Kingdom of Heaven bolder than they: "Lord, Thou gavest us life," they say to God, "and scarcely had we beheld it than Thou tookest it back from us." And so boldly do they beg and ask that the Lord grants them at once the rank of angels. And therefore,' the saint said, 'rejoice, woman, and do not weep, for your infant now abides with the Lord in the host of His angels.'"
> Church-Slavonic «сколь», «сии», and a short adjective: This whole speech is pitched in high Slavonic: «сколь» ('how, to what degree', archaic for «насколько»), «сии» (the bookish demonstrative 'these', from «сей»), and the short-form predicate adjective «дерзновенны» (are bold/daring). Short adjectives are bookish and predicative — the elevated voice of scripture.
> Slavonic «даровал» and «узрели»; archaic verbs: The infants' speech uses solemn forms: «даровал» (didst grant, elevated for «дал»), «узрели» (beheld, Slavonic for «увидели»). «взял … назад» is the plainer 'took back'. The pronoun «ты» addresses God with the reverent singular, repeated for liturgical rhythm.
> Archaic «посему», «молвил», vocative «жено», imperatives: «посему» ('therefore', bookish-archaic), «молвил» (said, elevated/folk-poetic for «сказал»), and especially «жено» — the old vocative of «жена» (woman/wife), a Church-Slavonic form of direct address surviving in scripture and prayer. «радуйся … не плачь» are imperatives, the saint's command to rejoice.

Вот что сказал святой плачущей жене в древние времена.  
That is what the saint said to the weeping woman in the days of old.
> Present active participle «плачущей»: «плачущей» is the present active participle of «плакать» (to weep), agreeing with «жене» (dative): 'to the weeping woman'. «в древние времена» (acc. pl. after «в») sets the tale 'in the days of old', closing the embedded legend.

Был же он великий святой и неправды ей поведать не мог.  
And he was a great saint, and he could not have spoken an untruth to her.
> The insistent particle «же»: «же» here is the emphatic/insistent modal particle, fused with inverted word order («Был же он …») to assert the point with weight: 'And he WAS a great saint'. Such particles carry the speaker's conviction where English needs stress or an added phrase.
> Genitive of negation and Slavonic «поведать»: Under the negated «не мог», the object goes genitive — «неправды» ('an untruth') rather than accusative «неправду». «поведать» (to tell, relate) is an elevated/archaic verb. Verb-final order — «поведать не мог» — adds solemnity.

Посему знай и ты, мать, что и твой младенец наверно теперь предстоит пред престолом господним, и радуется, и веселится, и о тебе бога молит.  
"Therefore know, you too, mother, that your infant surely stands now before the throne of the Lord, rejoicing and making merry, and praying to God for you.
> Imperative «знай» with intensifying «и ты»: «знай» is the imperative of «знать» (know!), softened-yet-urged by «и ты» ('you too'). «Посему» again is the bookish 'therefore'. The elder turns the legend's lesson directly onto the grieving woman.
> Present tense of timeless heavenly state: «предстоит» (stands before), «радуется», «веселится», «молит» — a string of imperfective presents picturing the child's eternal, ongoing state in heaven. «пред престолом господним» (instr. after archaic «пред») and «о тебе … молит» ('prays for you', «о» + prepositional) keep the sacred register.

А потому и ты плачь, но радуйся.  
And so weep, you too, but rejoice."
> Paired imperatives, joined by «но»: Two imperatives held in paradox by «но» (but): «плачь … но радуйся» — 'weep … but rejoice'. «А потому» ('and so, therefore') and «и ты» ('you too') tie the command back to the saint's. The aspect is imperfective, fitting an ongoing disposition rather than a single act.

Женщина слушала его, подпирая рукой щеку и потупившись.  
The woman listened to him, propping her cheek on her hand and casting down her eyes.
> Mixed gerunds: imperfective + perfective: Two gerunds of differing aspect sit together: imperfective present «подпирая» (propping — simultaneous, ongoing) and perfective past «потупившись» (having cast down [her eyes] — a completed prior act). The contrast lets Russian layer a held posture against a single finished gesture.

Она глубоко вздохнула.  
She sighed deeply.
> Semelfactive perfective «вздохнула»: «вздохнула» is perfective (the -ну- semelfactive of «вздыхать»): a single, complete sigh — 'she sighed [once]'. Against the imperfective description around it, this one perfective marks a discrete punctual act.

— Тем самым и Никитушка меня утешал, в одно слово, как ты, говорил: «Неразумная ты, говорит, чего плачешь, сыночек наш наверно теперь у господа бога вместе с ангелами воспевает». Говорит он это мне, а и сам плачет, вижу я, как и я же, плачет «Знаю я, говорю, Никитушка, где ж ему и быть, коль не у господа бога, только здесь-то, с нами-то его теперь, Никитушка, нет, подле-то, вот как прежде сидел!» И хотя бы я только взглянула на него лишь разочек, только один разочек на него мне бы опять поглядеть, и не подошла бы к нему, не промолвила, в углу бы притаилась, только бы минуточку едину повидать, послыхать его, как он играет на дворе, придет, бывало, крикнет своим голосочком: «Мамка, где ты?» Только б услыхать-то мне, как он по комнате своими ножками пройдет разик, всего бы только разик, ножками-то своими тук-тук, да так часто часто, помню, как, бывало, бежит ко мне, кричит да смеется, только б я его ножки-то услышала, услышала бы, признала! Да нет его, батюшка, нет, и не услышу его никогда! Вот его поясочек, а его-то и нет, и никогда-то мне теперь не видать, не слыхать его!..  
"That's just how Nikitushka comforted me too, word for word, the same as you; he said: 'You foolish woman,' he says, 'what are you weeping for? Our little boy is surely with the Lord God now, singing among the angels.' He says this to me, but he himself is weeping, I see, just as I am — weeping. 'I know,' I say, 'Nikitushka, where else should he be but with the Lord God; only here, with us, here he isn't now, Nikitushka, not beside us, the way he used to sit before!' And if only I might glance at him just once, only a single little time, look on him once more — and I wouldn't even go up to him, wouldn't say a word, I'd hide away in a corner, only to see him one little minute, to hear him as he plays in the yard, the way he used to come running, calling out in his little voice: 'Mama, where are you?' If only I could hear him cross the room once on his little feet, just once, his little feet pattering tap-tap, and so quick, so quick — I remember how he used to run to me, calling out and laughing — if only I could hear those little feet of his, hear them and know them! But he's gone, dear father, gone, and I'll never hear him again! Here is his little sash, but he himself is gone, and never now will I see him or hear him! ..."
> Folk-archaic «коль» for 'if': «коль» (also «коли») is a folk/archaic conditional 'if' (= «если») — 'where else should he be IF not with the Lord God'. It belongs to the peasant woman's speech, alongside her «ж» and «-то» particles, marking her register against the elder's Slavonic.
> Counterfactual longing with «бы»: A wave of «бы» + past-form verbs voices her hopeless wish: «взглянула … поглядеть … не подошла бы … не промолвила … притаилась бы» — 'if only I might glance … I wouldn't even go up … I'd hide away'. «хотя бы … только … разочек» piles on 'if only just once'. This is the conditional/optative at full stretch.
> Child's vocative «Мамка» and dropped copula: «Мамка» is the child's word for mama (the -к- here homely, intimate rather than pejorative), used in direct address. «где ты?» needs no verb — the zero-copula present, 'where [are] you?', as the remembered toddler calls out.
> An avalanche of diminutives: The speech drowns in tender diminutives — «голосочек» (dear little voice), «ножки» (little feet), «разочек» (just one little time), «минуточку едину» (one little minute), «поясочек» (little sash). The accumulation, with «тук-тук» (pitter-patter), renders a mother's grief through the morphology of endearment alone — untranslatable density that English approximates with 'little'.

Она вынула из-за пазухи маленький позументный поясочек своего мальчика и, только лишь взглянула на него, так и затряслась от рыданий, закрыв пальцами глаза свои, сквозь которые потекли вдруг брызнувшие ручьем слезы.  
She drew from her bosom her little boy's small braided sash, and the moment she glanced at it, she shook all over with sobs, covering her eyes with her fingers, through which the tears, suddenly gushing in a stream, came pouring down.
> «только лишь» + perfective, paired with «так и»: «только лишь … взглянула» (perfective, 'the moment she glanced') triggers «так и затряслась» — «так и» is an expressive 'just / simply' intensifier before the perfective onset «затряслась» (за- + -ся, fell to shaking). «от рыданий» gives the cause in the genitive after «от».
> Perfective gerund + instrumental + «свои»: «закрыв» is the perfective past gerund of «закрыть» (having covered), prior to the main verb. The means is instrumental — «пальцами» (with her fingers) — and «глаза свои» uses the reflexive possessive «свои» ('her own eyes'), placed after the noun for plaintive weight.
> «позумент» — gold/silver braid: «позумент» is decorative gold or silver braid/galloon; a «позументный поясочек» is a child's little sash trimmed with such braid — a humble keepsake the carting family could afford. The tangible object, kept «из-за пазухи» (in her bosom), is what finally breaks her composure.

— А это, — проговорил старец, это древняя «Рахиль плачет о детях своих и не может утешиться, потому что их нет», и таковой вам, матерям, предел на земле положен.  
"And this," said the elder, "this is the ancient "Rachel weeping for her children, and she will not be comforted, because they are not" — and such, you mothers, is the bound set for you on this earth.
> Archaic «таковой», dative, and short passive participle: «таковой» is the bookish-archaic 'such' (vs. plain «такой»). «вам, матерям» is a dative of the persons concerned ('for you mothers'). «положен» is the short-form past passive participle of «положить» — 'is set/laid down', the predicative short form stating a result. 'Such is the bound set for you on earth.'

И не утешайся, и не надо тебе утешаться, не утешайся и плачь, только каждый раз, когда плачешь, вспоминай неуклонно, что сыночек твой — есть единый от ангелов божиих — оттуда на тебя смотрит и видит тебя, и на твои слезы радуется, и на них господу богу указывает.  
And do not be comforted, nor have any need to be comforted; do not be comforted, but weep — only each time you weep, recall unfailingly that your little boy is one of the angels of God, that from up there he looks down upon you and sees you, and rejoices in your tears, and points them out to the Lord God.
> Imperfective imperatives: a way of being, not an act: The Elder commands with imperfective verbs — «утешайся» (-ся reflexive), «плачь», «вспоминай» — which urge an ongoing, repeated state rather than one completed act. Imperfective imperatives, especially in the negative, frame the grieving as a continuing condition to dwell in.
> The diminutive «сыночек»: «сыночек» is «сын» (son) twice softened (сын → сынок → сыночек). The suffix carries no idea of size, only tenderness and pity — exactly the register a monk would use to a bereaved mother about her dead boy.
> Slavonic «единый» and «от» for 'of': «единый» here is the elevated Church-Slavonic word for «один» (one), and «от ангелов» uses «от» where modern Russian would say «из» — a Slavonic partitive, 'one of the angels of God'. The whole phrase rings like Scripture read aloud.
> Possessive adjective «божий» and its archaic ending: «божий» ('of God, divine') is a possessive adjective, not the noun «Бог»; here it agrees with «ангелов» in genitive plural. The bookish spelling «-иих» (for modern «божьих») gives the line a liturgical weight.
> Verb government with «на» + accusative: Both «радуется на» (rejoices over) and «указывает на» (points at) take «на» plus the accusative — «твои слезы», then the pronoun «них». The repeated «на ...» builds the incantatory parallelism of the Elder's consolation.

И надолго еще тебе сего великого материнского плача будет, но обратится он под конец тебе в тихую радость, и будут горькие слезы твои лишь слезами тихого умиления и сердечного очищения, от грехов спасающего.  
And for a long while yet this great maternal weeping will be upon you, but in the end it will turn for you into a quiet joy, and your bitter tears will become only tears of quiet tenderness and of that cleansing of the heart which saves from sins.
> Dative experiencer with no nominative subject: There is no nominative subject: «тебе» (to you, dative) is the one upon whom the weeping 'will be'. This dative-experiencer framing makes grief something that happens to the mother rather than something she does — a pattern everywhere in Dostoevsky's inner speech.
> Archaic «сего» and genitive after the verb «будет»: «сего» is the bookish demonstrative «сей» ('this') in the genitive, agreeing with «плача». The whole phrase stands in the genitive because the existential «будет» ('there will be of...') governs it — partitive existence, the genitive's quiet work.
> Reflexive «обратится» — turns into: «обратиться в» ('to turn into') is a -ся verb of change of state, perfective future here, with the result of the transformation in «в» + accusative («в тихую радость»). The -ся marks the change as something the weeping undergoes by itself.
> «умиление» — tender contrition: «умиление» is a key Orthodox spiritual word: a melting tenderness of heart, often tearful, felt before the holy. English 'tenderness' undertranslates it — it names a specific grace, the soft, weeping compunction the Elder promises will replace bitter grief.
> Present active participle «спасающего»: «спасающего» ('which saves') is a present active participle from «спасать», declined to agree with «очищения» in the genitive — a one-word relative clause ('that cleansing... which saves from sins'). Such participial modifiers are a hallmark of the elevated, sermon-like register.

А младенчика твоего помяну за упокой, как звали-то?  
And I shall remember your little infant in the prayers for the dead — what was he called?"
> «младенчик» — little babe: «младенец» is the bookish/biblical word for an infant (as in the Christ-child); «младенчик» adds the affectionate diminutive. The Elder shrinks even this solemn word into tenderness for the grieving mother.
> Impersonal «звали» and the topic clitic «-то»: «как звали?» is literally 'how [did they] call [him]?' — an impersonal third-person plural with no subject, the normal Russian way to ask a name. The clitic «-то» tacked on softens and warms the question, a colloquial 'now what was he called?'

— Алексеем, батюшка.  
"Alexey, dear father."
> Bare instrumental answering 'what was he called?': The name stands alone in the instrumental, «Алексеем», because «звать» ('to call by a name') governs the instrumental for the name given — '[they called him] Alexey'. The case alone carries the whole sentence.

— Имя-то милое. На Алексея человека божия?  
"A dear name. After Alexey the Man of God?"
> Topic clitic «-то» and a zero-copula sentence: «Имя-то милое» is a present-tense statement with no verb 'to be' — 'the name [is] dear' — the predicate adjective simply following the noun. The «-то» highlights «имя» as the topic just raised, 'as for the name, it's a dear one'.

— Божия, батюшка, божия, Алексея человека божия!  
"Of God, dear father, of God, Alexey the Man of God!"
> The old genitive ending «-ия»: «божия» is the genitive of «божий» in its archaic, full spelling (modern «божьего»/«божия» → «Божия»). The mother's eager repetition — «Божия, батюшка, божия» — echoes the liturgical title back, half prayer.

— Святой-то какой! Помяну, мать, помяну и печаль твою на молитве вспомяну и супруга твоего за здравие помяну.  
"What a saint he was! I shall remember him, mother, I shall remember him, and your sorrow as well in my prayers, and I shall remember your husband too, among the living.
> Exclamatory «какой» — what a...!: «какой» here is not a question but an exclamation of degree — 'what a saint [he was]!' The «-то» again marks the warm topic. The word order, adjective-first, throws the emphasis onto his holiness.
> «вспомянуть» — bookish 'call to mind': Alongside ordinary «помяну», the Elder uses «вспомяну», an elevated, Slavonic-flavoured perfective ('I will bring to remembrance'). The slight archaism lifts his speech into the register of the prayers he is promising to say.

Только его тебе грех оставлять.  
Only it is a sin for you to leave him.
> Dative + «грех» + infinitive: 'it is a sin for you to...': A subjectless construction: «грех» (a sin) is the predicate, «тебе» the dative person concerned, and «оставлять» the infinitive naming the act — 'for you to leave him is a sin'. The fronted object «его» throws the husband into focus.

Ступай к мужу и береги его.  
Go back to your husband and take care of him.
> Imperfective imperatives of motion and care: Two imperfective commands: «ступай» ('go', an old, folksy imperative of «ступать') and «береги» ('take care of', from «беречь»). The imperfective makes them feel like settled instructions for how to live, not single errands.
> «ступай» — go, be off: «ступай» is a homely, slightly archaic imperative ('go along, off you go') that the Elder uses repeatedly with the women. It is warmer and more rustic than «иди» and recurs as a refrain dismissing each petitioner with a blessing.

Увидит оттуда твой мальчик, что бросила ты его отца, и заплачет по вас; зачем же ты блаженство-то его нарушаешь?  
Your boy will see from up there that you have abandoned his father, and he will weep over the two of you; why, then, do you trouble his blessedness?
> «что» clause reporting a fact: «что» here is the subordinating conjunction 'that', introducing what the boy will see — a plain reported fact, not a wish (which would take «чтобы»). The inverted «бросила ты» puts the shameful act first.
> Insistent «же» and the clitic «-то»: The particle «же» sharpens the question into reproach — 'why on earth do you...?' — while «-то» on «блаженство» marks it as the very thing at stake. Two tiny words carry the whole emotional pressure of the line.
> «по» + dative/locative for grieving 'over': «заплакать по» means to weep for/over someone; with «вас» it takes the old prepositional-style government for objects of mourning. «заплачет» is inceptive perfective — 'will burst into tears'.

Ведь жив он, жив, ибо жива душа вовеки; и нет его в доме, а он невидимо подле вас.  
For he is alive, alive, since the soul lives forever; and though he is not in the house, he is invisibly beside you.
> Short-form adjective «жив / жива» as predicate: «жив» (m.) and «жива» (f.) are short-form predicate adjectives — 'is alive' — used here without any copula. The short form is bookish and absolute, asserting a state, and its emphatic repetition («жив он, жив») is the Elder's whole creed in two words.
> «ибо» — bookish 'for, because': «ибо» is the elevated, scriptural conjunction for 'for/because' (modern «потому что»). It belongs to sermon and Scripture; in the Elder's mouth it marks the shift into a tone of doctrine: 'for the soul lives forever'.
> «вовеки» — unto the ages: «вовеки» ('forever, eternally') is a Church-Slavonic adverb from the liturgical «во веки веков» ('unto ages of ages'). It is far more solemn than the everyday «навсегда» and steeps the line in prayer.
> Genitive of negation in an existential: «нет его» — 'he is not [there]' — forces the absent person into the genitive, «его», the obligatory genitive after «нет». What is denied existence cannot stand in the nominative.

Как же он в дом придет, коль ты говоришь, что возненавидела дом свой?  
How is he to come into the house, then, when you say you have come to hate your own home?
> Prefixed motion verb «придёт» with «в» + accusative: «придёт» (from «прийти», perfective of «приходить») is a prefixed motion verb meaning 'will arrive/come in'; «в дом» takes the accusative for motion toward. The prefix при- adds the sense of arrival.
> «коль» — folk-poetic 'if / since': «коль» (and «коли») is a colloquial, somewhat old-fashioned conditional 'if/when/since', for modern «если». It gives the Elder's speech its rustic, biblical cadence — peasant Russian and Scripture meet here.
> Reflexive possessive «свой»: «свой» means the home belongs to the clause's own subject — 'your own home', the one you have come to hate. Using «свой» rather than «твой» binds the hatred reflexively back to the woman herself.

К кому ж он придет, коль вас вместе, отца с матерью, не найдет?  
To whom is he to come, if he does not find the two of you together, father and mother?
> Interrogative «кто» in the dative after «к»: «к кому» is the interrogative «кто» (who) declined to the dative that «к» requires — 'to whom'. The clipped «ж» (a reduced «же») presses the question. «кто» always governs masculine agreement, regardless of who is meant.
> Genitive object under negation; «с» + instrumental for accompaniment: The negated «не найдёт» pulls its object toward the genitive — «вас». The apposition «отца с матерью» pairs them with «с» + instrumental ('father with mother'), Russian's idiom for 'the two of you, father and mother'.

Вот он снится теперь тебе, и ты мучаешься, а тогда он тебе кроткие сны пошлет.  
Now he comes to you in dreams, and you torment yourself, but then he will send you gentle dreams.
> «сниться» — to appear in someone's dream: «сниться» (-ся verb) means 'to be dreamt by'; the dreamer goes in the dative, «тебе», and the thing dreamt is the grammatical subject — 'he appears to you in dreams'. The construction reverses the English logic of 'you dream of him'.
> Contrastive «а» pivoting now against then: «а» is the soft contrastive conjunction that hinges the two halves: now you torment yourself, «а тогда» — but then — he will send gentle dreams. «пошлёт» is perfective future, a single promised act.

Ступай к мужу, мать, сего же дня ступай.  
Go back to your husband, mother, go this very day."
> Archaic «сего дня» — 'this very day': «сего дня» is the genitive of «сей день» used adverbially for 'this day' — the very phrase that fused into the modern word «сегодня». The added «же» insists: 'this very day'. A small fossil of older Russian, kept solemn here.

— Пойду, родной, по твоему слову пойду. Сердце ты мое разобрал. Никитушка, ты мой Никитушка, ждешь ты меня, голубчик, ждешь! — начала было причитывать баба, но старец уже обратился к одной старенькой старушонке, одетой не по-страннически, а по-городски.  
"I'll go, dear one, I'll go at your word. You've laid bare my heart for me. Nikitushka, my own Nikitushka, you're waiting for me, dear one, you're waiting!" the peasant woman began to keen, but the elder had already turned to a little old woman dressed not as a pilgrim but in town fashion.
> Affectionate suffixes: «Никитушка», «голубчик»: «Никитушка» is the name Никита laddered down into deep tenderness (-ушка), and «голубчик» ('little dove') is a stock endearment for a beloved man. Heaped together, they are the keening woman's whole grief poured into diminutives.
> «причитывать» — to keen, to lament aloud: «причитывать» (also «причитать») names the traditional Russian ritual wailing-lament for the dead, a half-sung, formulaic mourning. Dostoevsky chooses the exact ethnographic word: the woman is not merely crying but performing the folk lament.
> The frustrative particle «было»: «начала было» uses the special particle «было» (an old past form, now invariable) to mark an action begun but cut off or undone — she had just started to keen, but the Elder had already turned away. It signals an interrupted, abortive beginning.
> Doubled diminutives «старенькой старушонке»: Both words are affectionately shrunk: «старенькой» (the -еньк- endearing diminutive of «старый») and «старушонка» (a слегка pitying diminutive of «старуха», little old woman). The pile-up paints her as small, frail, and pitiable before she even speaks.
> Adverbs of manner: pilgrim-wise vs town-wise: The «по-...-ски» pattern makes adverbs of manner from how one is dressed: «по-страннически» (in the manner of a «странник», a wandering pilgrim) versus «по-городски» (town-fashion). The contrast quietly marks her as not one of the rustic pilgrim women.

По глазам ее видно было, что у нее какое-то дело и что пришла она нечто сообщить.  
From her eyes one could see that she had some errand and that she had come to report something.
> Impersonal «видно было» with «по» + dative: A subjectless construction: «видно было» ('it was visible/evident') with «по глазам» ('from her eyes', «по» + dative) as the evidence. Russian routinely renders 'one could see from X that...' with this impersonal predicate.
> Indefinite «-то» and bookish «нечто»: «какое-то дело» uses the clitic «-то» for a specific-but-unknown 'some errand', while «нечто» is a bookish indefinite 'something'. The pairing — vague but real — mirrors the narrator's outside view: she clearly has a purpose, its content not yet disclosed.

Назвалась она унтер-офицерскою вдовой, не издалека, всего из нашего же города.  
She gave herself out as the widow of a non-commissioned officer, from no great distance — only from our own town.
> Reflexive «назваться» + instrumental of the predicate: «назваться» ('to call/give oneself out as') is a -ся verb whose predicate role goes in the instrumental — «вдовой» (as a widow). The note «-ою» on «унтер-офицерскою» is the older, fuller feminine instrumental ending (modern «-ой»).

Сыночек у ней Васенька, где-то в комиссариате служил, да в Сибирь поехал, в Иркутск.  
Her little son, Vasenka, had served somewhere in the commissariat, but then he had gone off to Siberia, to Irkutsk.
> Diminutives «сыночек» and «Васенька»; colloquial «у ней»: «сыночек» (dear little son) and «Васенька» (the name Вася laddered to deep affection) frame the lost boy in tenderness. «у ней» is the folksy variant of «у неё» — narration tinted with the woman's own speech.

Два раза оттуда писал, а тут вот уже год писать перестал.  
He had written from there twice, but now for a year he had stopped writing.
> Aspect contrast: imperfective «писал» vs cessation «перестал писать»: Imperfective «писал» ('wrote, used to write') gives the repeated background; «перестал писать» ('stopped writing'), perfective, marks the single break that changed things. «перестать» governs an imperfective infinitive. The «а» pivots habit against rupture.
> Genitive after «два»: After «два» the counted noun stands in the genitive singular — «два раза» ('twice', literally 'two of a time'). It is the standard rule for 2–4: genitive singular, not plural.

Справлялась она о нем, да, по правде, не знает, где и справиться-то.  
She had made inquiries after him, but, to tell the truth, she did not even know where to inquire.
> Reflexive «справляться о» — to inquire about: «справляться о» (-ся verb, + «о» + prepositional «о нём») means 'to make inquiries about'. The imperfective «справлялась» frames it as repeated, ongoing inquiry — she kept asking after him.
> Embedded indirect question with «где»: «не знает, где справиться» is an embedded question — 'doesn't know where to inquire' — with the infinitive of the perfective «справиться». The «и» ('even') and the warming clitic «-то» add a colloquial helplessness: she doesn't even know where to begin.

— Только и говорит мне намедни Степанида Ильинишна Бедрягина, купчиха она, богатая: возьми ты, говорит, Прохоровна, и запиши ты, говорит, сыночка своего в поминанье, снеси в церковь, да и помяни за упокой. Душа-то его, говорит, затоскует, он и напишет письмо. «И это, — говорит Степанида Ильинишна, — как есть верно, многократно испытано». Да только я сумлеваюсь... Свет ты наш, правда оно аль неправда, и хорошо ли так будет?  
"Only the other day Stepanida Ilyinishna Bedryagina, a merchant's wife she is, a rich one, says to me: 'You take and write down your little son in a memorial list, Prokhorovna,' she says, 'carry it to the church and have him remembered among the dead. His soul,' she says, 'will grow homesick, and he'll write a letter.' 'And this,' says Stepanida Ilyinishna, 'is true as can be, it's been tried many times over.' Only I have my doubts ... You, our light, is it true or not, and would it be all right to do so?"
> Historic present «говорит» in reported speech: The narrating present «говорит» ('she says'), repeated as a tag through the quotation, is colloquial Russian's vivid way of reporting past speech as if it were happening now. The reiterated «говорит» mimics live peasant storytelling.
> «намедни» — the other day: «намедни» is a colloquial, slightly rustic adverb for 'recently, the other day'. It flavors the woman's speech as homely and unliterary, in contrast to the Elder's solemn register.
> Folk forms «сумлеваюсь» and «аль»: «сумлеваюсь» is a substandard/dialectal «сомневаюсь» ('I doubt'), and «аль» is the rustic «или» ('or'). Dostoevsky spells the peasant pronunciation exactly, marking Prokhorovna's untutored, oral speech against the literary frame.
> «взять да и» — the 'up and do it' construction: «возьми... и запиши» (and «да и помяни») is the idiomatic «взять да (и)» pattern: a near-empty imperative of «взять» plus a second imperative, meaning 'just up and do it'. It gives advice a brisk, folksy, no-nonsense push.

— И не думай о сем. Стыдно это и спрашивать. Да и как это возможно, чтобы живую душу да еще родная мать за упокой поминала! Это великий грех, колдовству подобно, только по незнанию твоему лишь прощается.  
"Don't even think of it. It's shameful even to ask. And how could it be possible for a living soul, and his own mother at that, to have him remembered among the dead! That is a great sin, akin to witchcraft, and it's forgiven you only out of your ignorance.
> Negated imperative with archaic «о сем»: «не думай» is a negative imperfective imperative — 'don't even think [about it]'. «о сем» is the bookish demonstrative «сей» in the prepositional after «о» ('about this'), lending the rebuke a grave, sermonic weight.
> «чтобы» + past form for a hypothetical outcome: After «как это возможно» the clause uses «чтобы» plus the past-form «поминала» to frame the appalling hypothetical — that a living soul should be prayed for as dead. «чтобы» + past is Russian's irrealis 'that [one should]...', not a plain fact.
> Short adjective «подобно» + dative: «подобно» ('like, akin to') is the short neuter form of «подобный» used predicatively, and it governs the dative — «колдовству» ('to witchcraft'). The construction is bookish and weighty: 'akin unto witchcraft'.

А ты лучше помоли царицу небесную, скорую заступницу и помощницу, о здоровье его, да чтоб и тебя простила за неправильное размышление твое.  
Better pray to the Queen of Heaven, the swift defender and helper, for his health, and that she may also forgive you for your wrongful notion.
> Imperative «помоли» and purpose «чтоб ... простила»: «помоли» is a perfective imperative ('pray to'), and «да чтоб ... простила» is a purpose clause — «чтоб(ы)» plus the past-form «простила» — 'so that she may forgive you'. The colloquial «чтоб» drops the final «-ы».

И вот что я тебе еще скажу, Прохоровна: или сам он к тебе вскоре обратно прибудет, сынок твой, или наверно письмо пришлет.  
And here is something else I'll tell you, Prokhorovna: either he will come back to you himself before long, your son, or he will surely send a letter.
> Correlative «или... или» with perfective futures: The paired «или... или» ('either... or') links two perfective futures, «прибудет» (will arrive) and «пришлёт» (will send) — two single, completed outcomes the Elder foretells with prophetic certainty. «сам» intensifies: he himself will come.
> Prefixed motion verb «прибыть»: «прибудет» is the perfective future of «прибыть» (to arrive), a prefixed, elevated motion verb where the prefix при- carries 'arrival, coming to'. It is more formal than «приедет» — the Elder speaks even of homecoming in a raised register.

Так ты и знай.  
Know that for certain.
> Imperative «знай» with the affirming «и»: «знай» is the imperfective imperative of «знать» ('know'), and the «и» ('just, indeed') drives the assurance home — 'know it for certain, that's how it is'. A set formula for clinching a promise.

Ступай и отселе покойна будь.  
Go, and from this moment be at peace.
> Short adjective «покойна» as predicate with «будь»: «покойна» is the short feminine form of «покойный» ('at peace, calm') used predicatively with the imperative «будь» — 'be at peace'. The short form fits the absolute, blessing-like command, and the word order (predicate-first) heightens it.
> «отселе» — archaic 'from here / henceforth': «отселе» (and the dialectal «отселева» in s105) is an archaic/folk adverb for «отсюда» ('from here', and by extension 'from now on'). It gives the Elder's blessing a timeless, scriptural ring.

Жив твой сынок, говорю тебе.  
Your son is alive, I tell you."
> Short adjective «жив» fronted for emphasis: Once more the short predicate «жив» ('is alive') opens the sentence ahead of its subject «твой сынок», throwing all the weight onto the assertion of life. The free word order lets Russian put the news first.

— Милый ты наш, награди тебя бог, благодетель ты наш, молебщик ты за всех нас и за грехи наши...  
"Our dear one, God reward you, our benefactor, you who pray for us all and for our sins ..."
> Optative imperative: 'may God reward you': «награди тебя бог» uses a third-person subject with an imperative-form verb to express a wish/blessing — 'may God reward you'. This optative use of the imperative is the standard shape of Russian benedictions and curses alike.
> «молебщик» — one who prays for others: «молебщик» (variant of «молельщик») is one who offers prayers — here the people's intercessor before God. It belongs to popular religious speech and casts the Elder in the role the peasants most need: the man who prays on their behalf.

А старец уже заметил в толпе два горящие, стремящиеся к нему взгляда изнуренной, на вид чахоточной, хотя и молодой еще крестьянки.  
But the elder had already noticed in the crowd two burning eyes straining toward him — the gaze of a worn-out peasant woman, consumptive in appearance though still young.
> Two present active participles modifying «взгляда»: «горящие» (burning) and «стремящиеся к нему» (straining toward him) are both present active participles, declined to agree with «взгляда» — a dense participial description typical of literary narration. After «два» the noun is genitive singular «взгляда», while the participles take the older plural ending «-ие».
> «чахоточная» — consumptive: «чахоточный» means consumptive, suffering from «чахотка» (tuberculosis) — the wasting disease that haunts 19th-century Russian fiction. The single word marks the young woman as already dying, which colors all her plea for absolution.
> Concessive «хотя (и)» — although: «хотя и ... еще» ('although still...') concedes a contrast: worn-out and consumptive though she looks, she is yet young. «хотя» introduces the concessive clause; the «и» reinforces it.

Она глядела молча, глаза просили о чем-то, но она как бы боялась приблизиться.  
She looked on in silence, her eyes pleading for something, yet she seemed afraid to draw nearer.
> «просить о» + prepositional; indefinite «о чём-то»: «просить о» ('to ask/plead for') governs «о» + prepositional, here «о чём-то» — 'pleaded for something', the «-то» marking a real but unnamed request. The eyes, not the woman, are made the subject — a metonymy of mute longing.
> Hedging «как бы» and reflexive «бояться»: «как бы» ('as if, as it were') hedges the observation — she seemed afraid. «бояться» is a verb that exists only in the -ся form and takes an infinitive complement here, «приблизиться» (to draw near).

— Ты с чем, родненькая?  
"What is it you've come about, my dear?"
> Elliptical «с чем?» — what have you come about?: «Ты с чем?» is an elliptical idiom (verb of coming understood) — 'what are you here with / what's your business?' «с» governs the instrumental «чем». The whole question is gently abbreviated, as one would speak to a frightened soul.
> «родненькая» — dear little one: «родненькая» is the feminine of «родной» ('dear, own kin') with the doubly-soft diminutive -еньк-. The Elder reaches for the most tender possible address to a trembling, dying woman.

— Разреши мою душу, родимый, — тихо и не спеша промолвила она, стала на колени и поклонилась ему в ноги.  
"Absolve my soul, dear one," she said softly and unhurriedly, and she knelt down and bowed to the ground at his feet.
> Imperative «разреши» — absolve: «разреши» is the perfective imperative of «разрешить», here in its older ecclesiastical sense 'absolve, loose [from sin]' (cf. «разрешить от грехов»). She is asking for the priestly loosing of sin, the «душу» (soul) as its object.
> Sequenced perfectives and reflexive «поклониться»: Two perfective past verbs move the action forward step by step: «стала на колени» (knelt) and «поклонилась» (bowed), the latter a -ся verb governing the dative «ему». «в ноги» is the deep prostration — a bow to the very feet.

— Согрешила, отец родной, греха моего боюсь.  
"I have sinned, dear father, and I am afraid of my sin."
> «бояться» + genitive object: «бояться» ('to fear', a -ся-only verb) governs the genitive — «греха моего» ('my sin'). Fronting the object before the verb throws the weight onto the sin itself. The whole confession opens with the object of dread.
> «отец родной» — dear father: «родной» ('one's own, dear by kin') turns the address «отец» from mere title into intimacy — 'my own dear father'. It is the spiritual-child's word to a confessor, claiming kinship of the soul.

Старец сел на нижнюю ступеньку, женщина приблизилась к нему, не вставая с колен.  
The elder sat down on the lowest step, and the woman drew near to him without rising from her knees.
> Negated gerund «не вставая» — without rising: «не вставая» is an imperfective present gerund (деепричастие) sharing the woman's subject — 'drawing near without rising'. The gerund packs an attendant circumstance into the main clause, and the negation makes it 'while not getting up'.

— Вдовею я, третий год, — начала она полушепотом, сама как бы вздрагивая. — Тяжело было замужем-то, старый был он, больно избил меня.  
"I've been a widow three years now," she began in a half-whisper, herself seeming to shudder. "It was hard for me, being married; he was old, and he beat me cruelly.
> Verb «вдоветь» and «третий год» for duration: «вдовею» is the present of «вдоветь» ('to be a widow, live widowed'), an imperfective state-verb. «третий год» — literally 'the third year' — is the idiomatic way to count duration in progress: 'I'm now in my third year of widowhood'.
> Present gerund «вздрагивая» — shuddering as she spoke: «вздрагивая» is an imperfective present gerund expressing a simultaneous action — she spoke 'shuddering'. The hedge «как бы» ('as if') and intensive «сама» ('herself') frame the involuntary trembling that accompanies her confession.
> Impersonal «тяжело было» with implied dative: «тяжело было» ('it was hard') is an impersonal predicate; the experiencer (мне) is understood. «замужем» is a frozen adverb 'married (of a woman)', and the clitic «-то» gives the bitter recollection a confiding, oral tone.

Лежал он больной, думаю я. гляжу на него: а коль выздоровеет, опять встанет, что тогда?  
He lay there sick, and I think to myself, looking at him: what if he gets well and rises up again — what then?
> Historic present in vivid narration: She switches to the present — «думаю» (I think), «гляжу» (I look) — to relive the scene as if it were now. This historic present, dropped into a past narrative, is the oral storyteller's device for immediacy at the crucial, terrible moment.
> Conditional «коль» + perfective future: «коль выздоровеет... встанет» is a real conditional ('if he gets well... rises up'), the «если»-clause with folk «коль» plus perfective futures. The abrupt «что тогда?» ('what then?') leaves the murderous thought hanging unspoken.

И вошла ко мне тогда эта самая мысль...  
And then this very thought came into me ..."
> Prefixed motion «войти» of an abstract subject: «вошла» (perfective of «входить/войти», 'to enter') takes a thought as its subject — the «мысль» (thought) 'came into' her, «ко мне» (к + dative). Making the murderous idea a thing that enters, rather than something she conceives, distances her from it.
> Demonstrative «эта» + intensifier «самая»: «эта самая мысль» — 'this very thought' — pairs the near demonstrative «эта» with «самый» ('the very, the selfsame'), both agreeing with «мысль». The phrase points darkly at the specific, unnamed idea she cannot bring herself to state aloud.

— Постой, — сказал старец и приблизил ухо свое прямо к ее губам.  
"Wait," said the elder, and he brought his ear right up to her lips.
> Imperative «постой» — wait: «постой» is the perfective imperative of «постоять», idiomatically 'wait, hold on'. The perfective gives it a sharp, momentary force — a single 'stop right there' as the Elder leans in.
> Reflexive possessive «свое» vs «ее»: The contrast is exact: «ухо свое» is the Elder's own ear (свой, back to the subject), «к ее губам» her lips (её, someone else's). Russian keeps the two possessives strictly apart, and the line gains its intimacy from that precision.

Женщина стала продолжать тихим шепотом, так что ничего почти нельзя было уловить.  
The woman went on in a low whisper, so that almost nothing could be made out.
> Impersonal «нельзя было» with genitive object under negation: «нельзя было уловить» ('it was impossible to catch') is a subjectless modal predicate; the negative pulls the object into the genitive — «ничего» ('nothing'). The double negation (нельзя ... ничего) is normal Russian negative concord.

Она кончила скоро.  
She finished quickly.
> Perfective «кончила» — finished: «кончила» (perfective past of «кончить») views the whispered confession as a single completed whole — she 'finished'. Set among the surrounding imperfectives, the perfective snaps the scene shut.

— Третий год? — спросил старец.  
"Three years ago?" asked the elder.
> Elliptical duration phrase «третий год?»: The Elder picks up her earlier «третий год» (s96) as a one-phrase question — 'in the third year [ago]?' Russian counts elapsed time by the ordinal of the year underway, so this means roughly 'three years ago?'

— Третий год. Сперва не думала, а теперь хворать начала, тоска пристала.  
"Three years ago. At first I didn't think about it, but now I've begun to ail, and a heaviness has come over me."
> Aspect and the contrastive «а»: then vs now: Imperfective «не думала» ('didn't think about it', the long earlier state) is hinged by «а» against «хворать начала» (began to ail). «начать» governs an imperfective infinitive — «хворать», a folk word for sickening.
> «тоска» — anguish that clings: «тоска» is the famously untranslatable Russian word for a heavy, aching melancholy or dread; «пристала» ('stuck, clung to me') makes it almost a disease that has fastened on her. Together they name the spiritual sickness following her secret crime.

— Издалека?  
"From far off?"
> «издалека» — from far away: «издалека» is an adverb 'from afar', built on the genitive-governing prefix из- plus «далеко». The Elder's single-word question — 'from far off?' — keeps the terse rhythm of the whispered exchange.

— За пятьсот верст отселева.  
"Five hundred versts from where I live."
> Genitive plural after «пятьсот»; archaic «отселева»: Numbers from five up take the genitive plural, hence «вёрст» (gen. pl. of «верста») after «пятьсот». «отселева» is a rustic/archaic «отсюда» ('from here'), marking her peasant speech.

— На исповеди говорила?  
"Have you told it in confession?"
> Location «на исповеди» in the prepositional: «на исповеди» ('at/in confession') uses «на» + prepositional for the setting of an activity. The verb «говорила» is imperfective — the focus is the fact of having confessed, not a single completed telling.

— Говорила, по два раза говорила.  
"I've told it, told it twice."
> Distributive «по» + «два раза»: «по два раза» uses distributive «по» — 'twice [each / on more than one occasion]'. With the counted «два раза» (gen. sg. «раза» after «два»), it stresses repetition: she told it, and told it again.

— Допустили к причастию-то?  
"Were you admitted to Communion?"
> Impersonal plural «допустили» + «к» + dative: «допустили» ('they admitted [you]') is an agentless third-person plural — the Church/priests as an unnamed 'they'. «к причастию» takes «к» + dative ('to Communion'). The «-то» again warms the question.

— Допустили. Боюсь; помирать боюсь.  
"I was admitted. I'm afraid; I'm afraid to die."
> «бояться» + infinitive; folk «помирать»: «бояться» ('to fear', -ся-only) here takes an infinitive — «помирать боюсь» ('I'm afraid to die'). «помирать» is the homely, peasant verb for dying, against the neutral «умирать», and the bare repetition of «боюсь» conveys her raw dread.

— Ничего не бойся, и никогда не бойся, и не тоскуй.  
"Fear nothing, and never be afraid, and do not grieve.
> Negative concord across negated imperatives: Three negated imperfective imperatives heap up negative concord: «ничего не бойся», «никогда не бойся» — the ни-words «ничего» (nothing) and «никогда» (never) each still require «не» on the verb. Russian's double (here triple) negation is obligatory, not emphatic excess.

Только бы покаяние не оскудевало в тебе — и всё бог простит.  
Only let your repentance not grow scant within you — and God will forgive everything.
> Optative «только бы» + past form: «только бы ... не оскудевало» is a wish/proviso built with the particle «бы» on a past-tense form — 'only let [it] not grow scant'. «бы» + past makes the irrealis; «только» turns it into the one condition that matters.
> «оскудевать» — to grow scant: «оскудевать» ('to grow poor, dwindle, run dry') is a bookish, Slavonic-tinged verb — the kind of word found in Scripture and homily. Applied to «покаяние» (repentance), it casts repentance as a well that must not be allowed to run dry.

Да и греха такого нет и не может быть на всей земле, какого бы не простил господь воистину кающемуся.  
Indeed, there is not, nor can there be, anywhere on the whole earth a sin such that the Lord would not forgive one who truly repents.
> Genitive of negation in a sweeping existential: «греха ... нет и не может быть» forces 'sin' into the genitive «греха» under the negated existentials «нет» and «не может быть» — 'there is not, nor can there be, [any] sin'. The genitive of negation gives the denial its absolute, all-earth sweep.
> Relative «какого» + «бы» for the hypothetical: «какого бы не простил» is a relative clause with «какой» in the genitive (its object role) plus the irrealis «бы» — 'such [a sin] as the Lord would not forgive'. The «бы» makes the unforgiven sin a hypothetical the Elder denies could exist.
> «воистину» and the participle «кающемуся»: «воистину» ('truly, verily') is a solemn, churchly adverb (famous from the Paschal greeting «Воистину воскресе»). «кающемуся» is the present active participle of «каяться» (to repent), in the dative — 'to one who truly repents'.

Да и совершить не может совсем такого греха великого человек, который бы истощил бесконечную божью любовь.  
Nor can a man commit so great a sin as to exhaust God's boundless love.
> Genitive of negation with a negated transitive verb: Under the negation «не может ... совершить» the object slides into the genitive — «такого греха великого» ('so great a sin'). The split, bookish word order (adjective after noun, «греха великого») lends the sentence a scriptural cadence.
> Relative «который» + «бы» — irrealis relative clause: «который бы истощил» is a relative clause with «который» (agreeing with «человек», masc.) carrying the irrealis «бы» — 'a man who would [be able to] exhaust...'. «бы» + past «истощил» again frames the impossibility hypothetically.

Али может быть такой грех, чтобы превысил божью любовь?  
Or can there be a sin that would exceed God's love?
> Folk «али» and «чтобы» + past for a hypothetical sin: «али» is the rustic «или/разве» opening a rhetorical question. «чтобы превысил» uses «чтобы» plus the past form «превысил» to describe a hypothetical, sought-for kind of sin — 'such a sin that it would exceed God's love' — which the Elder asks only to deny.

О покаянии лишь заботься, непрестанном, а боязнь отгони вовсе.  
Care only for repentance, unceasing repentance, and drive out fear altogether.
> Fronted «о покаянии» and «заботиться о» + prepositional: «заботиться о» ('to care for') governs «о» + prepositional, «о покаянии» — fronted before the verb for emphasis, with «лишь» ('only') pinning it as the sole concern. «заботься» is the imperfective imperative.
> Imperative «отгони» — drive out; object-first order: «отгони» is the perfective imperative of «отогнать» ('drive away'), with the object «боязнь» (fear) placed before it for emphasis and «вовсе» ('utterly') closing the line. The fronted object answers the woman's confessed fear directly.

Веруй, что бог тебя любит так, как ты и не помышляешь о том, хотя бы со грехом твоим и во грехе твоем любит.  
Believe that God loves you in a way you cannot even conceive — that He loves you even with your sin and in your sin.
> Slavonic imperative «веруй» + «что» clause: «веруй» is the imperative of «веровать», the elevated, churchly verb for 'believe (have faith)' as against everyday «верить». It governs a «что» clause reporting the content of the faith — 'believe that God loves you'.
> Concessive «хотя бы» and Slavonic «со / во»: «хотя бы» concedes 'even (with)...'. The prepositions appear in their full Slavonic forms «со грехом» (instrumental, 'with your sin') and «во грехе» (prepositional, 'in your sin') — the extra vowel a solemn, liturgical touch echoing 'even in your very sin'.

А об одном кающемся больше радости в небе, чем о десяти праведных, сказано давно.  
And over one repentant sinner there is more joy in heaven than over ten righteous men — so it was said long ago.
> Comparative «больше ... чем» with «о» + prepositional: The comparative «больше радости ... чем» ('more joy ... than') sets «об одном кающемся» against «о десяти праведных», both in «о» + prepositional. «кающемся» is again the participle of «каяться»; «десяти» is the prepositional of «десять».

Иди же и не бойся.  
Go, then, and do not be afraid.
> Imperative pair with insistent «же»: «иди» (imperfective imperative, 'go') is sharpened by «же» — 'go, then'. It is paired with the negated «не бойся» (don't fear, -ся verb), the same dismissal-with-blessing formula the Elder gives each woman.

На людей не огорчайся, за обиды не сердись.  
Do not be aggrieved with people, do not be angry at the wrongs done you.
> Reflexive imperatives with «на» and «за»: Both verbs are -ся imperatives of emotion: «огорчаться на» ('be aggrieved at', на + accusative «людей») and «сердиться за» ('be angry over', за + accusative «обиды»). The prepositions fix what one is not to resent — people, and the wrongs they do.

Покойнику в сердце всё прости, чем тебя оскорбил, примирись с ним воистину.  
In your heart forgive the dead man everything by which he wronged you, and be truly reconciled with him.
> Dative «покойнику» and relative «чем»: «прости» (perfective imperative, 'forgive') takes the dative of the person forgiven — «покойнику» ('to the dead man') — and «всё» as object. «чем ... оскорбил» is a relative clause where «чем» (instrumental of «что») means 'by which he wronged you'.
> Reflexive «примириться с» + instrumental; solemn «воистину»: «примириться с» ('be reconciled with') is a -ся verb governing «с» + instrumental, «с ним». The closing «воистину» ('truly, verily') seals the command in the same churchly register that runs through the Elder's whole counsel.

Коли каешься, так и любишь.  
If you repent, then you love.
> «коли» — folk 'if': «коли» is a colloquial, peasant-speech conditional conjunction meaning 'if / when', standing for the neutral «если». It marks the elder's voice as deliberately simple and homespun here, and recurs throughout these chapters with the country women.
> Reflexive «каяться»: «каешься» is the present of «каяться» (to repent), a verb that exists only with the clitic -ся: there is no non-reflexive «каять». The -сь appears here after the vowel ending. The pithy present-tense pairing «каешься… любишь» reads as a timeless general truth.

А будешь любить, то ты уже божья...  
And if you love, then you already belong to God...
> Compound future with «быть»: «будешь любить» is the imperfective future: the conjugated future of «быть» (будешь) plus the imperfective infinitive «любить» — 'you will [go on] loving'. The imperfective frames love as an ongoing state rather than a single act.
> «божий» — God's own: «божья» is the feminine of the possessive adjective «божий» ('God's, divine'), agreeing with the woman addressed: 'you (already) belong to God'. The bare predicate adjective with no copula, plus the soft folk-religious tone, makes this read like a benediction.

Любовью всё покупается, всё спасается.  
By love everything is bought, everything is saved.
> Instrumental of means: «любовью»: «Любовью» is the instrumental of «любовь» (love), here the instrument by which everything is accomplished — 'by/through love'. Fronting it before the verbs gives love the rhetorical weight of the sentence.
> Reflexive passive in -ся: «покупается» and «спасается» are imperfective verbs in -ся functioning as passives: 'everything is bought, everything is saved'. This middle/passive use of -ся, with the agent left to the preceding instrumental «любовью», is the natural Russian way to say something is done without naming a doer.

Уж коли я, такой же, как и ты, человек грешный, над тобой умилился и пожалел тебя, кольми паче бог.  
If even I, a sinful man just like you, have been moved over you and taken pity on you, then how much more so has God.
> «кольми паче» — how much more so: «кольми паче» is a Church-Slavonic set phrase meaning 'how much more (so)', the rhetorical a fortiori of Scripture and sermon. Dropped into the elder's plain peasant speech, it lifts the sentence into the register of preaching: if a sinful man can pity, all the more does God.
> Perfective past pair: «умилился» (was moved to tenderness, -ся) and «пожалел» (took pity) are perfective pasts naming two completed acts of compassion. The perfective treats each as a single accomplished event, the protasis of the elder's 'if… then' argument.
> «такой же, как» — just the same as: The frame «такой же…, как и ты» means 'just the same kind as you'; the particle «же» here intensifies the identity ('the very same'), and «как и» adds 'as'. The whole apposition stresses that the elder claims no superiority over the sinner.

Любовь такое бесценное сокровище, что на нее весь мир купить можешь, и не только свои, но и чужие грехи еще выкупишь.  
Love is such a priceless treasure that with it you can buy the whole world, and redeem not only your own sins but the sins of others as well.
> Result clause «такое… что»: «такое… что» ('such… that') sets up a consequence clause: love is so priceless a treasure that the following becomes possible. «что» here is the subordinating conjunction of result, set off by a comma, opening the dependent clause.
> Perfective futures of capacity: «купить можешь» pairs «мочь» with the perfective infinitive «купить» (buy, completed), and «выкупишь» is itself a perfective present-form future ('you will redeem'). Both view the buying and redeeming as achievable, completed wholes — the perfective's natural sense of result.
> «не только… но и» with «свой»/«чужой»: The correlative «не только… но и» means 'not only… but also'. The contrast turns on «свои» (one's own — the reflexive possessive pointing back to the subject 'you') versus «чужие» (others', someone else's): you redeem not only your own sins but others' too.

Ступай и не бойся.  
Go now, and do not be afraid.
> Two imperatives, one negated: «Ступай» (go, an old-flavoured 'be off, go on now') and «не бойся» (don't be afraid) are second-person imperatives; «бойся» comes from the -ся-only verb «бояться». The negated imperative «не бойся» is imperfective, the usual aspect for a soothing 'don't…' prohibition.

Он перекрестил ее три раза, снял с своей шеи и надел на нее образок.  
He made the sign of the cross over her three times, took a little icon from his own neck, and hung it upon her.
> Reflexive «свой» = his own neck: «с своей шеи» ('from his own neck') uses the reflexive possessive «свой», which points back to the clause's subject (the elder himself). The archaic «с своей» (rather than the modern «со своей») is a faintly bookish, period spelling.

Она молча поклонилась ему до земли.  
In silence she bowed down to the ground before him.
> Perfective -ся, feminine past: «поклонилась» is the perfective past of «поклониться» (to bow), a -ся verb; the -ась ending marks a feminine singular subject ('she bowed'). The past tense agrees in gender, not person — a relic of the old participle behind every Russian -л past.

Он привстал и весело поглядел на одну здоровую бабу с грудным ребеночком на руках.  
He rose a little and looked cheerfully at one hale young woman with a nursing baby in her arms.
> Accusative of the animate object: «на… бабу» is accusative after «на» with the verb of looking; «одну здоровую бабу» shows the full feminine-accusative chain (одну, здоровую, бабу) agreeing across number, adjective, and head noun. «одну» here is less 'one' than the colloquial 'a certain'.
> «баба» — peasant woman: «баба» is a plain (and in other contexts coarse) word for a peasant woman or country wife, fitting the chapter title «Верующие бабы». «здоровая» here means 'hale, robust, in good health', not 'healthy' in the clinical sense.
> «ребёночек» — tender diminutive: «ребёночек» (instrumental «ребёночком» after «с») is an affectionate diminutive of «ребёнок» (child). The suffix carries tenderness, not just smallness — the narrator's warmth toward the nursing infant. «грудной ребёнок» means a babe still at the breast.

— Из Вышегорья, милый.  
— From Vyshegorye, my dear.
> «милый» as address: «милый» ('dear, dear one') is used here as a warm vocative-style address to the elder, the familiar tenderness of peasant speech. Throughout the scene the women call him «милый», «милая», «голубчик»-style endearments rather than by title.

— Шесть верст, однако, отсюда, с ребеночком томилась. Чего тебе?  
— Six versts from here, even so, and you wore yourself out with the little one. What is it you want?
> Genitive plural after a numeral: After 'five and above' Russian puts the counted noun in the genitive plural: «шесть вёрст» (вёрст is gen. pl. of «верста»). The same rule shapes «шестьдесят копеек» later in the scene.
> «однако» — 'even so': «однако» here is a sentence-medial 'and yet, even so', the elder marking surprise that she came so far with an infant. Note also «томилась», the imperfective past of «томиться» (to wear/tire oneself, languish), stressing the drawn-out effort of the walk.

— На тебя глянуть пришла. Я ведь у тебя бывала, аль забыл? Не велика же в тебе память, коли уж меня забыл. Сказали у нас, что ты хворый, думаю, что ж, я пойду его сама повидаю: вот и вижу тебя, да какой же ты хворый? Еще двадцать лет проживешь, право, бог с тобою! Да и мало ли за тебя молебщиков, тебе ль хворать?  
— I came to have a look at you. I have been to see you before, or have you forgotten? You haven't much of a memory, then, if you've already forgotten me. They told us back home that you were ailing, so I think to myself, well now, I'll go and see him for myself: and here I see you, and how are you ailing at all? You'll live another twenty years yet, truly you will, the Lord be with you! And with so many to pray for you, how should you take ill?
> «аль» — folk 'or': «аль» is a rustic, dialectal variant of «или / разве» ('or, or is it that…'), here introducing a question: 'or have you forgotten?'. Together with «коли» and «уж» it paints the woman's speech as broad peasant vernacular.
> Particle «ведь» + iterative «бывала»: «ведь» appeals to shared knowledge — 'why, I've been to see you, you know'. «бывала» is the iterative imperfective past of «бывать» (to be [repeatedly], visit now and then), so it means 'I used to come / have been here before', not a single visit.
> Short adjective «велика»: «велика» is the short (predicative) form of «великий/велик», feminine to agree with «память»: 'your memory is not great'. Short adjectives serve only as predicates and have a bookish, sententious ring well suited to this teasing reproach.
> Interrogative «ли» (here «ль»): The clitic «ль» (reduced «ли») turns this into a rhetorical yes/no question: 'is it for you to be ailing?'. The dative «тебе» plus infinitive «хворать» frames an impersonal 'should you really be the one to fall ill?' — incredulous, affectionate.
> «хворый» and «молебщик»: «хворый» / «хворать» is folk for 'sickly' / 'to be ailing' (vs. neutral «больной/болеть»). «молебщик» (gen. pl. «молебщиков») is one who prays for another — from «молебен», an Orthodox service of intercession — so 'with so many praying for you, how could you take ill?'

— Спасибо тебе за всё, милая.  
— Thank you for everything, my dear.
> Dative with «спасибо»: «Спасибо» ('thank you', historically «спаси Бог» — 'God save [you]') governs the dative of the person thanked: «спасибо тебе». «милая» is the affectionate feminine address 'my dear'.

— Кстати будет просьбица моя невеликая: вот тут шестьдесят копеек, отдай ты их, милый, такой, какая меня бедней. Пошла я сюда, да и думаю: лучше уж чрез него подам, уж он знает, которой отдать.  
— And here's a small request of mine, while we're at it: there are sixty kopecks here, give them, dear man, to someone poorer than I am. I set out to come here and thought to myself: better to give it through him, he'll know which one to give it to.
> «просьбица» — diminutive of request: «просьбица» is an expressive diminutive of «просьба» (request), softening and humbling it — 'a tiny little favour'. Paired with «невеликая» ('not big'), it doubly minimises what she is about to ask, the self-effacing courtesy of the peasant woman.
> Correlative «такой… какая» + comparative: «такой, какая…» pairs a demonstrative antecedent with a relative ('to such a one as…'). «бедней» is the predicative comparative of «бедный» (poorer), and «меня» is the genitive of comparison — 'poorer than I'. So: give it to someone who is poorer than I am.
> «чрез» — bookish 'through': «чрез» is the elevated, contracted form of «через» ('through, by means of'), here 'better to give it through him'. Note also «которой отдать»: «которой» is the dative feminine of the relative «который» — 'to which [woman] to give it' — he will know the right one.

— Спасибо, милая, спасибо, добрая. Люблю тебя. Непременно исполню. Девочка на руках-то?  
— Thank you, my dear, thank you, kind woman. I love you. I will do it without fail. Is that a little girl in your arms?
> Perfective future «исполню»: «исполню» is the perfective present-form future of «исполнить» (to carry out, fulfil): 'I will do it [and see it done]'. The perfective promises completion, and «непременно» ('without fail') underscores it.
> The topic clitic «-то»: Hyphenated «-то» attached to «на руках-то» is the emphatic/topic particle, foregrounding the known topic ('the one there in your arms') — quite distinct from the indefinite «-то» in «кто-то». It gives the question a warm, conversational pointing.

— Девочка, свет, Лизавета.  
— A girl, light of my life, Lizaveta.
> «свет» as endearment: «свет» ('light') is used here as a term of endearment in address — 'light of my eyes, my dear', a folk-poetic vocative the woman offers the elder. «Лизавета» is the older/folk form of the name Елизавета (Elizabeth).

— Благослови господь вас обеих, и тебя и младенца Лизавету. Развеселила ты мое сердце, мать. Прощайте, милые, прощайте, дорогие, любезные.  
— May the Lord bless you both, you and the infant Lizaveta. You have gladdened my heart, mother. Farewell, my dears, farewell, my beloved, my cherished ones.
> «благослови» — imperative of blessing: «Благослови» is the imperative of «благословить» (to bless), in a wish-formula with «господь» as subject: 'may the Lord bless you'. «вас обеих» is the feminine accusative of «обе» (both, of two females) — both the mother and the infant girl.
> «младенец» — babe / infant: «младенец» (here acc. «младенца») is the solemn, slightly Slavonic word for an infant, the word of Scripture and liturgy (cf. 'the holy Innocents'). Its register lifts the blessing above the plain «ребёночек» used earlier in the scene.
> Polite imperative «прощайте»: «Прощайте» is the plural/polite imperative of «прощать» — literally 'forgive [me]', the standard Russian farewell. The -те ending addresses the whole gathered crowd. The piled-up endearments «милые, дорогие, любезные» pour out the elder's tenderness.

Он всех благословил и глубоко всем поклонился.  
He blessed them all and bowed low to every one of them.
> «весь»: accusative vs dative: The same pronoun «весь» (all) appears in two cases by its role: «всех» is animate accusative (object of «благословил» — blessed them all), while «всем» is dative (governed by «поклониться» — bowed to them all). The forms make the syntax visible where word order is free.
> «поклониться» governs the dative: «поклониться» (to bow [to]) takes its object in the dative — «всем» — because a bow is directed 'to' someone. Both verbs are perfective pasts, closing the scene with two completed, final gestures of blessing and reverence.
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Source text: public domain (Fyodor Dostoevsky, d. 1881; Russian from the Nauka academic edition via ru.wikisource). English translation: original, © 1732 Studios (2026); rendered freshly from the public-domain Russian, not derived from any prior English translation. Sentence-aligned by 1732 Studios.